- 



NEW AND POPULAR 



PICTORIAL DESCRIPTION 



OF 



BUND, SCOTLAND, IRELAND, WALES 



AND 



THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 



EMBELLISHED WITH 



SEVERAL HUNDRED HANDSOME ENGRAVINGS. 

ILLCSlltATlNG THE NATURAL SCENERY, CURIOSITIES, ANTIQUITIES, DRUIDICAL AND 

ROMAN REMAINS, MANSIONS, CATHEDRALS, ABBEYS, CHURCHES, COLLEGES, 

v-ASTLES, AND OTHER GREAT WORKS OF ARCHITECTURE, ETC., ETC.. 

WHICH ABOUND IN THOSE CELEBRATED COUNTRIES. 



CAREFULLY COMPILED FROM THE BEST AND LATEST SOURCES, 

BY ROBERT SEARS. 

w 

TENTH THOUSAND. 

NEW YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY ROBERT SEARS. 181 WILLIAM ST., 

J. S. REDFIELD, CLINTON HALL. 

BOSTON : SAXTON & KELT, WASHINGTON ST. 

SOLD ALSO BY AUTHORIZED AGENTS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES AND BRITISH PROVINCKi 

1855. 



.S4 



Pit. 



•JsJ 



I9SS 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, 

By ROBERT SEARS, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Southern 

District of New York. 



In Exchange 
Duke University 

may 7- am 



STEREOTYPED BY REDF1ELD & SAVAGE. 
13 Chambers Street, N. Y. 



jb 



PREFACE 



Books describing cities and countries have ever held a high rank among works of 
general utility and interest. The reasons are obvious : man naturally feels a sym- 
pathy with his own species, and reads of his fellow-beings, their habits, manners, 
and actions, with a reference to his own people and to himself. The places inhabited 
by other men have attractions for us far above any desert waste ; and the cities they 
have built, and the houses they inhabit, present an irresistible appeal to our national 
curiosity. Hence it ever has been, and ever must be the fact, that books which de» 
scribe such objects are popular in proportion to the truth and judgment with which 
they are written, and the taste and intelligence of the readers. 

Even a traveller in Africa, or any other uncivilized region of the earth, finds much 
to say which we are willing and happy to hear ; but how much more material for 
record and perusal is afforded by a country inhabited by men in a refined state of 
society. If to this be added the memorials of former ages, and a long course of 
striking events, important in their present consequences, the attractions and value of 
the work are greatly enhanced. And where would it be possible to find a part of 
the world more abounding in such points of interest than that which forms the sub- 
ject-matter of this volume ? In all these respects, Great Britain stands pre-eminent 
the most active, powerful, and refined state in Europe ; exercising the most mechan- 
ical skill, carrying on the most extensive commerce ; controlling the widest empire ; 
practising, advocating, proclaiming, and propagating, many of the soundest princi- 
ples, offers to our view a country, small in extent, and therefore the more easily in- 
spected and studied, abounding no less in the interesting and instructive memorials 
of many past ages, than in the most admirable productions of modern science and art. 
The antiquities, curiosities, and scenery, of the parent land, are surely of the deepest 
interest to the millions who speak the language of " Old England," scattered through 
every quarter of the habitable globe. The antiquities of England are the antiquities 
of North America, and of Australia — of mighty continents and fertile islands, where 
the descendants of the Anglo-Saxon have founded " new nations." They are of 
especial interest to the Young who are seeking for information on these subjects. 
So abundant, indeed, are these objects, that many large works have been written 
on each separate class of them: but as they are far too voluminous and minute for 
an American reader, it has been our design to select and arrange the most prominent 
in different departments ; and thus to present, in a single volume, all that is of 
primary interest and importance. 



4 PREFACE. 

It will be observed, that a large space has been devoted to LONDON,* bust, 
clamorous, crowded, imperial London ; and for doing this, scarcely a word of 
explanation is needed. It is the abode of intelligence and industry ; the centre of 
trade and commerce ; the resort of the learned and the inquiring. Here the poet 
has sung his sweetest strains, the historian produced the most authentic records, the 
philosopher made his most elaborate research, and communicated its most satisfac- 
tory results. Here has dwelt a Pope, a Hume, a Bacon, a Locke, a Davy, a Boyle, 
and a Priestley. Here a Milton produced the sublimest of all human composi- 
tions ; and here a Shakspere portrayed the passions in all their various moods, and 
a Garrick gave them life and a startling reality. Here, too, Newton found opportu- 
nity to explore and lay open the deepest mysteries of Nature, while the glowing can- 
vass of a Lawrence gives a present existence to the events of long-past ages. It con- 
tains traces of almost every code in history from the age of the Romans to the pres- 
ent day — edifices erected by the most distinguished artists, in different styles ; and 
which have been the residences of whole lines of monarchs, or of more eminent states- 
men, scholars, and philanthropists ; courts of law, and houses of legislation, which 
have not only had their influence on past generations and distant countries, but 

HAVE SERVED AS MODELS FOR THOSE UNDER WHICH WE OURSELVES LIVE. Ill London, 

also we find an impressive epitome of English history and the greatness and frailty 
of man, in the solemn aisles of Westminster abbey. The very streets of the metropo- 
lis, as well as some of its most obscure and humble districts, are celebrated as the 
abodes or resorts of men, distinguished for learning, taste, or moral worth ; for 
eloquence at the bar or the forum ; for courage or conduct in the field. In London 
have occurred a large share of those actions by which the destiny of the nation has 
been influenced or decided ; and whose effects we feel to the present day. 

An acquaintance with these scenes and objects is not to be regarded as a means of 
mere literary recreation. England has not struggled through the trials of successive 
ages for naught. She does not, like Spain or Italy, or even France, boast of slow 
improvements in a few matters of secondary importance, while the chief objects of 
national progress are disregarded. England early accomplished her emancipation 
from Rome, and has ever maintained it; and not only religion, but literature, art, 
and the whole civil, and social condition of the people, have received benefits in- 
numerable and inestimable. 

In the arts and sciences, London has many memorials and specimens to exhibit. 
Some of the public edifices are works of the best architects of the kingdom ; and the 

* We are apt to imagine here in the United States, that the growth of our towns and cities greatly 
surpasses in rapidity and extent those of any part of the old world. Some facts about London would 
seem to contradict this notion. It is stated, for instance, in a recent report to the government, that 
in a little more than twelve years, twelve hundred new streets have been added to London, which 
is at the rate of one hundred streets a year. These twelve hundred new streets contain forty-eight 
thousand houses, most of them built on a large and commodious scale, and in a style of superior com- 
fort. With all this wonderful increase, it is said that the demand for houses instead of diminishing, 
continues to increase, and that while in many towns of the interior the number of unoccupied houses 
is augmenting, scarcely is a new street finished, before almost every house in k is fully occupied. 
One great reason assigned for the rapid growth of London, is the extraordinary facility and despatch 
with which people are now transported over railroads terminating there. Owing to this cause, it is 
estimated that the daily influx of individuals is five times greater than it was fifteen years ago. 
London is now about forty miles in circumference, and numbers about two millions of ia~ 
oabitants. 



PREFACE. 5 

collection of ancient arts in the British Museum, and of modern painters and sculp 
tors in the Royal Academy and elsewhere, have much to gratify and improve the 
taste. The parks of London display, in an eminent degree, the noble features of 
nature; and to an American this is peculiarly agreeable, as it corresponds with the 
impressive wildness of our own native forests, as strangely as it contrasts with the 
feeble and artificial tastes, so prevalent on the Continent. To us, also, the aged oaks 
of London are connected with interesting associations, not less so than 

" Thy forests, Windsor, and thy green retreats, 
At once the monarch's and the muses' seats." 

Wherever we turn our eyes we perceive some trace of the land of our forefathers ; 
and we can not speak a word without borrowing their tongue. Even in our cradles 
we are lulled by the sweet music which was wafted across the ocean with the ships 
of the Pilgrims, coupled with the lofty songs of their poets who have best trans- 
ferred to modern speech exalted strains of inspiration. In childhood we were sur- 
rounded by the guardian hands of mothers, trained on the pure and refined model of 
Britain ; and prepared to perform our parts in life, under the practical tutelage and 
daily example of men who have derived their ideas of rights and duties from the most 
free and intelligent people of the Old World. Though under advantages, which 
America alone can offer, we have made advances of our own, it becomes us clearly 
to understand the sources of our blessings, as well as those to which we are indebted 
for their increase. An obligation results from the principle of gratitude. In the 
infancy of many of our benevolent institutions we received liberal assistance from 
our friends across the ocean. In reference to this subject, a late American writer* 
observes : — 

We are living on the capital furnished by others, reaping fields not planted by our 
hands. We are enjoying benefits earned and secured by preceding generations, not 
by those simply who have lived on this soil, but of multitudes on the other side of 
the sea. Much of our present prosperity is owing to the timely aid which distant 
benefactors extended. These goodly churches and institutions which have been the 
glory of the Atlantic states, were liberally fostered by Christians in Europe. It is 
doubtful whether some of the more important of them could have survived without 
this generous sympathy. The munificent founder of Harvard college could hardly 
be called a resident of this country. It was only a few months of languishing illness 
that he passed in New England. For a century and a half. Harvard college, so 
dear to the early churches, was often remembered by the large-hearted Christians 
of the parent-country. Some of the most eminent men of the seventeenth century 
vied with each other in their generous donations. Dr. John Lightfoot and Dr. 
Theophilus Gale gave the whole of their select and invaluable libraries to the 
college. An English nobleman erected a principal edifice at his sole expense. No 
father ever provided for his children with more solicitous care than Thomas Hollis, 
or rather the constellation of generous spirits of that name, who watched the progress 
of the pilgrims' college. They never saw it ; they were three thousand miles away, 
yet the flame of a most disinterested charity was quenched only by death. George 
Whitefield, besides those gifts which gold can not purchase, procured valuable 
donations for the same institution. We might allude to the foreign aid bestowed on 
almost every other seminary founded in our country before the revolution, and on 
some since that event. Several bear the name of their British benefactors. 

* Professor B. B. Edwards, of Andover, Mass. 



6 PREFACE. 

But this beneficence was not confined to academical institutions. It flowed wher- 
ever a channel could be opened for it. The first printing-press in this country was 
a donation from Holland. The whole expense of that extraordinary undertaking, 
the printing of the first edition of John Eliot's Indian Bible, was borne in England. 
The apostle himself, the Mayhews and other missionaries even down to David 
Brainerd, were sustained, in a great degree, from the same source. The name of 
Robert Boyle is scarcely more renowned in science or in piety, than it is from its 
connexion with our early Indian missions. The great New England theologian, 
after his disruption from his pastoral charge, was cheered in his exile with the 
warmest and most generous sympathy from friends in Scotland, who had never seen 
him. It is not, perhaps, too much to say, that some of the greatest of his productions 
would never have been written, but for the M'Cullochs and Erskines of that country. 
Even the enmities excited by two wars have not been able wholly to dry up these 
streams of benevolence. Within a very recent period, an Englishman has been 
more ready to bequeath his property for the diffusion of knowledge among us, than 
the Congress of the United States are to employ the gift. 

It is a remarkable fact in relation to these English benefactors, that they were, 
for the most part, members of different religious communions from those of the 
pilgrims. Bishop Sherlock made a valuable donation to Harvard college. Bishop 
Berkeley has immortalized his name in connexion with Yale. The earl of Dart- 
mouth was an episcopal nobleman. Thomas Hollis was a baptist. When he trans- 
mitted one of his gifts, he remarked, that he did not know that his portrait would 
be safe from insult in the hall of the college which he was so liberally endowing. 

Besides, these noble benefactors were not discouraged, though some of their funds 
might be misapplied or wasted. They patiently bore severe disappointments and 
heartily rejoiced in a small measure of success. 

On these various accounts, a " Pictorial Description of Great Britain and 
Ireland," offers an attractive and profitable study to the intelligent of all countries ; 
and especially to the American reader. The present is a period peculiarly favor- 
able for the appearance of a work of this kind, and none could have been more 
agreeable to the Editor. Gloomy clouds which lately darkened the horizon, have 
been dispelled ; and the sunshine of peace, which now smiles upon us, is doubly 
delightful. None of us could have entertained so just a conception of the conse- 
quences of a war between England and America, if we had not been forced to look 
upon it as impending ; and therefore, all good men, we have reason to believe, are now 
more than ever impressed with the importance and duty of preserving peace. To 
reflect, but for a moment, upon the present state of the world, with the unprecedented 
means of attack and defence, in the hands of the two nations, on both land and sea 
to take into account the moral restraints which must be burst through by such a 
contest, and devastation of public and private interest to both parties, with the 
blow which would be given to every measure and hope of improvement in the 
world, makes an impression on the mind, more appalling than words can describe. 
To prevent the recurrence of such a danger, to lay as deep, as is possible for human 
hands, the foundations of permanent peace, immediate measures should be adopted 
to implant a mutual esteem and friendship between the two people. And nothing 
can be more reasonable, natural, and easy, than this : identity of origin, and of blood . 
of language, literature, religion, and principles of civil condition ; connexions in 



/ 



PREFACE. 7 

commerce, and unity in the prosecution of the great interests of mankind, by a noble 
career which we have long pursued, at the head of the nations ; all point out this 
as the necessary and the only course for Great Britain and America. The very voice 
of Nature, as well as that of duty, and of God, seems to dictate it in words of 
thunder. Foster mutual respect and attachment, promote the noble rivalry which 
has been so happily begun in every physical, social, and moral improvement, and 
seek in every department some means of advancing the glorious cause ! 

But other means must prove of limited and doubtful success, unless a mutual ac- 
quaintance is provided for. If unknown to each other, how can we feel alike, or 
act together ? We should become intimately acquainted with each other's condition, 
or we can form no definite idea of each other's character. Every book, therefore, 
which is calculated to diffuse among us historical and descriptive accounts of Great 
Britain, has a solid claim, we think, to the favorable regard of the patriotic and the 
good ; and the more it is fitted to circulate and prove attractive to all classes of com- 
munity, and especially to the young, the more is its intrinsic worth increased, and 
its extensive circulation made desirable. 

With views like these, and in a spirit corresponding, has the present work been 
compiled and written. Deeply impressed with the utility of such a publication, un- 
wearied pains have been taken, and great expense has been incurred, to render it 
such as to please and instruct all. Nothing has been omitted that was considered 
useful or agreeable. And evidences of these views and labors may everywhere be 
found. The most interesting and instructive subjects have been chosen for graphic 
illustration to assist the letter-press description. From the materials for such a 
volume a large folio might have been produced ; but our object has been to condense 
and arrange in as small a compass as possible, all the really useful information the 
subject can afford ; thus giving to the public a work, at a comparatively trifling ex- 
pense, which details all that could be learned from far more expensive and bulky 
volumes. Not a sentiment, or an expression, has been admitted into this volume 
which will not bear the test of justice, propriety, and religion. 

What sensible person can fail to prefer a work of this nature to the light and 
frivolous, and too often, alas ! immoral and corrupting works of fiction, which 
now overflow from the press? There are more useful truths conveyed in one 
of these pages, than are contained in whole volumes of such writings. No taste 
but a perverted one could deliberately prefer the latter. The young and inex- 
perienced can hardly be competent judges of their own reading : it is for their ex- 
perienced elders, whose judgments are mature to direct and encourage them in the 
selection of subjects, and of books, which shall at once store their minds with valuable 
truths, and train their hearts to virtuous sentiments. The author feels a deep solici- 
tude on this subject, and has endeavored to do his part for the promotion of the 
good of the rising generation. He here presents a work planned and composed 
with these considerations in view ; and he hopes for the approbation and the sup- 
port of many who approve of his views, and appreciate the end proposed. 

R. S. 

New York, November 1, 1846. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter I. — Description of England and Wales .... page 1 1 

Chapter II. — Vegetable Productions 37 

Chapter III.— The People.— Their Character 39 

Chapter IV. — Progress of Population — Health and Longevity 42 

Chapter V. — Remarkable Natural Scenery — Natural Curiosities 43 

Chapter VI.— The Isle of Wight 54 

Chapter VII.— The Isle of Portland 68 

Chapter VIII. — The Isle of Jersey 77 

Chapter IX. — The Isle of Guernsey 82 

Chapter X. — The Scenery of Wales 90 

Chapter XI. — Antiquities 115 

Chapter XII. — Monastic Antiquities 137 

Chapter XIII. — Crosses 162 

Chapter XIV. — Regal and Baronial Antiquities 169 

Chapter XV. — Mansions 223 

Chapter XVI. — Manufacturing Towns 250 

Chapter XVII. — Commercial Towns 270 

Chapter XVIII. — University Towns 277 

Chapter XIX.— Naval Stations 304 

Chapter XX. — Towns of Residence and Recreation 315 

Chapter XXL— Cathedral Towns 316 

Chapter XXIL— London 333 

Chapter XXIII. — The Municipal Government of the Metropolis 336 

Chapter XXIV.— Law Courts 343 

Chapter XXV. — Legislation and Government 348 

Chapter XXVI. — Fire Insurance, Supply of Water, Gas, Paving 356 

Chapter XXVIL— The Court 360 

Chapter XXVIII. — Inns, Hotels, Taverns, Public-Houses, and Clubs 362 

Chapter XXIX. — External and Internal Communication 369 

Chapter XXX.— The "Bank" and Banking — The Mint— The Exchange and its 

Neighborhood 379 

Chapter XXXI. — Commerce. — The River and Port, and the Docks 391 

Chapter XXXII. — Trade. — Ludgate Street, and the Shops of the " City." — Regent 

Street, and the Shops of the « West End" 399 

Chapter XXXIII. — Markets. — Smithfield, Billingsgate, and Covent Garden 405 

Chapter XXXIV. — Manufactures. — Spitalfields — The Borough — Bermondsey and 

Tooley Street 412 



10 CONTENTS. 

Chapter XXXV.— Bridges page 417 

Chapter XXXVI.— Amusements.— The Theatres and Exhibitions 421 

Chapter XXXVII.— Public Worship 434 

Chapter XXXVIII.— Public Walks 455 

Chapter XXXIX. — Funerals and Cemeteries 458 

Chapter XL.— SCOTLAND.— Geographical Description— Soil — Climate — Produc- 
tions — Agriculture 463 

Chapter XLI. — The People. — Their Character — Progress of Population 467 

Chapter XLII. — Remarkable Natural Scenery — Natural Curiosities 469 

Chapter XLIII. — Antiquities 488 

Chapter XLIV. — Mansions 507 

Chapter XLV.— Chief Towns 507 

Chapter XL VI. — ffiELAND. — Geographical Description — Geological Structure — 

Mineralogy 523 

Chapter XLVII. — Climate — Vegetable Productions — Animals 527 

Chapter XLVIII. — The People. — Their Character and Circumstances — Population. . 528 

Chapter XLIX. — Antiquities 53 1 

Chapter L. — Leinster 537 

Chapter LI. — Munster 544 

Chapter LIL— Ulster 547 

Chapter LIII. — Connaught 552 



A NEW AND POPULAR 



PICTORIAL DESCRIPTION 



OF 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



CHAPTER I. 

DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

The ancient kingdom of England, inclusive of Wales, forming geographically the 
principal division of the island of Great Britain, and politically the chief division of 
the United Kingdom — the country in which it is no boast to say the arts and institu- 
tions of social life have made as great an advance as they have done in any part of 
the continent — enjoys a situation which has unquestionably tended much to make 
the country what it is, both politically and socially. The island, of which it is the 
southern and larger portion, is protected from neighboring countries by a sea of suffi- 
cient breadth in most parts, and sufficiently uncertain in its condition, to throw al- 
most insuperable difficulty in the way of an invading force. Placed in a medium 
latitude, it is further saved by the surrounding ocean from those extremes of heat, 
cold, and aridity, to which continental countries in both higher and lower parallels 
are often subject. While there are some districts, chiefly in the west and north, in 
which an uneven surface prevails, the country may be generally described as of a 
level and fertile character. Almost everywhere the eye rests upon the evidences of 
a long-enduring cultivation, in rich corn-fields and meadows, surrounded by well- 
grown hedges and rows of trees ; the elm-surrounded Gothic parish church, the clean 
honey-suckled village, and the well-wooded park connected with the residence of 
the wealthy gentleman, being other notable features in the landscape, while the 
monthly-roses and other flowering shrubs, which climb over the cottages of those in 
humbler life, give an air of picturesque beauty to the rides throughout the whole of 
England. When we turn from merely rural scenes, we see not less striking eviden- 
ces of an advanced civilization, in frequent brick towns and " towered cities," gen- 
erally overhung by clouds of smoke resulting from the coal everywhere used for 
domestic, if not also for manufacturing purposes. The peculiar features of some of 
these cities — Liverpool, Hull, and Bristol, vast depots of mercantile shipping ; Man- 
chester and Birmingham, sites of extensive manufactures ; London, in itself a superb 
port, the seat of the government, and the residence of a class of unprecedented wealth 
and splendor — will be more particularly adverted to in the sequel. 

England is situated between fifty degrees and fifty-five degrees forty-five minutes 
north latitude, and six degrees west and one degree fifty minutes east longitude, from 
Greenwich observatory. On the north, the only direction in which it is not sur- 
tounded by the sea, it is divided from Scotland by a series of rivers and a chain of 



12 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

mountains. The greatest length, from Lizard Point in Cornwall to Berwick-upon- 
Tweed, is four hundred miles ; and the greatest breadth, from St. David's Head in 
Pembrokeshire to the east of Essex, is three hundred miles. The area has been 
variously estimated, at fifty thousand three hundred and eighty-seven, and fifty-seven 
thousand nine hundred and sixty square miles ; it has also been estimated at thirty- 
seven millions seven hundred and eighty-four thousand four hundred acres, of which 
only about a fourth part is said to be uncultivated. 

England is divided into fifty-two counties, forty of which form England proper, 
while twelve belong to Wales. They may be thus enumerated : — 

Southern counties. — Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Wilts, Hampshire, Berk- 
shire, Sussex, Surrey, and Kent. 

Midland southern counties. — Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Bucking- 
hamshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, North- 
amptonshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire. 

Midland northern counties. — Rutlandshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Notting- 
hamshire, and Derbyshire. 

Eastern counties. — Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Lincolnshire. 

Counties bordering on Wales. — Monmouth, Herefordshire, Shropshire, and 
Cheshire. 

Northern counties. — Lancashire, Westmoreland, Cumberland, York, Durham, 
and Northumberland. 

Counties in South Wales. — Glamorganshire, Brecknockshire, Caermarthenshire, 
Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire, and Radnorshire. 

Counties in North Wales. — Montgomeryshire, Merionethshire, Flintshire, Den- 
bighshire, Caernarvonshire, and Anglesea. 

The capital city is London, which is also the metropolis of the United Kingdom. 

The counties are subdivided into hundreds, wapentakes, tithings, &c, the whole 
containing twenty-five cities (inclusive of London) and one hundred and seventy-two 
boroughs. For ecclesiastical purposes, the country is divided into eleven thousand 
and seventy-seven parishes ; the largest number in any county being four hundred 
and seventy-five, in Somersetshire, and the smallest thirty-two, in Westmoreland. 

Owing to the limited extent and insular position of England, it contains no rivers 
comparable in magnitude to those of various continental countries. There are, nev- 
ertheless, some fine navigable streams, as the Thames, Medway, Humber, and 
Tyne, on the east side of the island, and the Mersey and Severn on the west side. 
The Trent, Ouse, Tees, Wear, Dee, Avon, and Derwent, are minor, but not incon- 
siderable rivers ; besides which there are many of inferior importance. England 
contains no large lakes; but those of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire, 
though of small size, are celebrated for the picturesque scenery by which they are 
surrounded. 

Wales and the west side of England generally are mountainous. The chief ranges 
of mountains in this district have been classed under three heads: The Devonian 
range, stretching from Somersetshire through Devon into Cornwall, and terminating 
with the promontory of the Land's End ; the Cambrian range, extending from the 
Bristol channel through Wales ; and the Northern or Cumbrian range, stretching 
from Derbyshire through Cumberland, and passing into Scotland. None of the indi- 
vidual hills exceed 3,000 feet in height, except a few in Wales ; the highest being 
Snowdon, in Caernarvonshire (3,571 feet). In the central and eastern parts of Eng- 
land (south of Yorkshire) there are a few ill-defined ranges of swelling eminences, 
but none which reach the altitude of 1,000 feet. Besides Snowdon, the principal 
eminences in England are David (3,427 feet) and Llewellen (3,469), both in Wales; 
Skafell (3,166), Skiddaw (3,022), and Saddleback (2,787), in Cumberland ; and Hel- 
vellyn (3,055), in Westmoreland. The loftiest points in the Devonian range are not 
more than from 1,000 to 1,200 feet in height. 

GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE. — SOIL. — CLIMATE. 

The surface of England includes specimens of the whole extent of the series of 
rocks, from the primary, which are found in the ranges of mountains on the west, to 
the lowest of the tertiary, which compose several districts in the southeast ; strata 
intermediate to these divisions being found in succession, in proceeding from the 



GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.— SOIL.— CLIMATE. 13 

west and north toward the east and south. The cut on the next page exhibits a real 
section of a part of England, which will at once convey, far more intelligibly than 
any verbal description, a very correct notion of the manner in which the strata now 
present themselves, when we penetrate the crust of the earth, or view them in those 
precipices on the seashore, or in mountainous districts, where natural sections are 
exposed. 

The reader will readily observe that the four parts belong to one continuous line, 
which has been broken, in order to adapt it to the form of our page, but the index let- 
ters show where they unite : A joins to B, C to D, and E to F. It is taken from the 
excellent work of Coneybeare and Phillips on the geology of England and Wales. 
It must not be supposed that any such section as that represented here is to be seen : 
it is constructed by putting together an extensive series of exact observations and 
measurements at detached points along the line, made, however, with such care, that 
if the land were actually cut down, it is very unlikely that any of the great features 
would be found to be erroneous. Suppose then that a line be drawn from the Land's 
End to Bendley hill, on the east coast, near Harwich, not absolutely straight, but 
passing over all the great features of the country that lie between the two points, at 
a short distance on either side of an imaginary central line, and that a vertical 
section were made to a depth in some place as far below the level of the sea as 
have been penetrated in the deepest mines, the precipice thus exposed would present 
such an arrangement of the strata as is exhibited in the diagram. It is necessary, 
however, to state that neither the horizontal distances, nor the vertical elevations, 
can be given in such a diagram in their true proportions. To do so, the paper must 
have been many yards long and several feet in height. The order of position, and 
the succession of the strata as they lie over each other, are, however, truly given ; 
and nothing would be gained for the illustration of the facts the section is intended 
to represent, by increasing either the length or height. The horizontal line repre- 
sents the level of the sea. We shall now travel along the line of section, beginning 
our journey at the Land's End, in Cornwall. We shall thus, as we move eastward, 
meet the different groups of strata in the order of succession we have already de- 
scribed, and shall find the tertiary rocks on the shores of the German ocean. 

Fig. A is that portion of the section which extends from the Land's End to the 
western slope of Dartmoor forest, north of Tavistock, crossing Mount's bay to Mara- 
zion, Redruth, Truro, and north of Grampound and Lostwithiel. The principal rock 
is primary slate, a, which is in highly-inclined strata, and is traversed by numerous 
metallic veins and great veins or dykes of granite and other unstratified rocks, b and 
c, the granite also forming great mountain masses that rise in some instances to the 
height of 1,368 feet above the sea, and in many places the great masses of granite 
are seen to send up shoots in numerous and frequently slender ramifications into the 
superincumbent slate. 

Fig. B C contains that part. of the section which lies between a point some miles 
north of Tavistock and the summit of the Mendip hills, in Somersetshire, passing 
near Tiverton, Milverton, Nether Stowey, and Cheddar. On the left, or western 
part, we find a continuation of the slaty rocks, a, traversed by veins of whinstone, c, 
and then we come upon a mass of granite, b, forming the lofty mountain group of 
Dartmoor forest. This is flanked on the east by the same slate that occurs on the 
west, and contains veins of whinstone, c, and subordinate beds of limestone, d. The 
slate continues without interruption for many miles, as far east as the Quantock hills, 
near Nether Stowey, where it is seen for the last time on this line of section, being 
succeeded by the secondary rocks. A great part of the slate belongs to that lowest 
group of the secondary rocks called transition, in which the rock Grauwacke prevails, 
from which the group has been named. On each side of the Quantock hills are de- 
posites of rounded pebbles of grauwacke and limestone cemented together, e a. To 
the slate, a, succeeds the old red-sandstone group,/, followed by the mountain-lime- 
stone group, g. The strata of these rocks, soon after their deposition, must have been 
violently acted upon, for they are thrown up in such a manner as to form a trough or 
basin, as it is called in geological language ; and in this trough there are found the 
red-marl group, i, and the lowest member of the oolite group, the lias limestone, I. 
Here we miss a member of the series which should have come between the moun- 
tain limestone and the red marl, viz., the coal group ; this is a blank of very frequent 
occurrence, but we shall find it in its right place on the other side of the Mendip 



14 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.— SOIL.— CLIMATE. lb 

hills. These are cut through on tne right of the figure, and are seen to be composed 
of old red sandstone in the centre, covered on their sides by mountain limestone. 

Fig. D E represents that part of the section which lies between the Mendip hills 
and Shotover hill, near Oxford. On the west we see the old red-sandstone group in 
the centre of the Mendip ridge, and that it is succeeded by a very instructive section 
of the great coal-field of Somersetshire. Here, as on the west side of the Mendip 
hills, the old red-sandstone and mountain-limestone groups have been acted upon by 
such a force from below, that they have been thrown up in opposite directions, and 
have formed a trough. As the coal measures, h, partake of the curvature, it is evi- 
dent that the disturbance took place subsequently to their deposition ; but it must 
have been prior to that of the next group, for the red-marl beds, t, are deposited in 
Unconformable stratification upon the turned-up ends of the strata of the coal group. 
The red-marl group is covered by the portions of the lowest bed of the oolite group, 
k, indicating some powerful action at the surface, which has caused the removal of 
the connecting portions of the oolite beds, leaving insulated masses on the summits 
of high hills. This last occurrence of a mass of a horizontal stratum capping a lofty 
hill is very frequent, for the surface of the earth exhibits many proofs of its having 
been acted upon by water in motion, which has scooped out valleys and washed 
away vast tracts of solid earth. But such mountain caps have been also sometimes 
produced by the elevation of the mountain, a portion of rock being carried up to a 
great elevation, which had been a part of an extensively continuous stratum at a 
lower level. This deposite of the coal group is succeeded, as we proceed eastward, 
by the red-marl group, resting in unconformable stratification on the ends of the old 
red sandstone, two intermediate groups being thus wanting, and this is followed for 
many miles by successive members of the oolite group, I, inclined at a low angle. 

Fig. F. The oolite group continues from Shotover hill to the neighborhood of 
Aylesbury, where it is succeeded by the sands, clays, and marls, which form the in- 
ferior members of the chalk group, m. Near Tring, the chalk with flints emerges, 
forming the lofty hill of Ivinghoe, which is 904 feet above the level of the sea, and it 
continues uninterruptedly to Dunmow, in Essex. Here the secondary rocks terminate, 
and the chalk is covered by very thick beds of clay, n, which form the lowest mem- 
bers of the tertiary strata, and, continuing on to the sea, appear in the cliffs of the 
coasts of Essex and Suffolk. 

All the solid strata most abundant in animal remains are either limestones or con- 
tain a large proportion of lime in their composition. Many thick beds of clay also 
abound in them ; but in that case limestone in some form or other is generally asso- 
ciated with the clay. From this it has been inferred, and not without a strong sem- 
blance of probability, that animals have mainly contributed to the formation of many 
limestone strata, in the same way as we see them now at work forming vast lime- 
stone rocks in the coral reefs of the Pacific ocean. A reef of this sort extends for 
three hundred and fifty miles along the east coast of New Holland, and between that 
country and New Guinea the coral formations have been found to extend, with very 
short intervals, throughout a distance of seven hundred miles. Of all the forms of 
organized bodies which are found in a fossil state, from the lowest stratum in which 
they occur to those of most modern date, shells and corals constitute by far the great- 
est proportion. All the strata must have been deposited in seas or lakes, and it is 
therefore natural that animals living in water should be most abundant ; besides, as 
shells and corals are not liable to decay, they remain, while the soft, boneless ani- 
mals which inhabit them perish entirely ; and fishbones, being more perishable than 
shells, are comparatively rare. 

Shells are by far the most numerous class of fossils : they are found in all forma- 
tions, from the lowest stratum in which animal remains have been seen, to the most 
recent deposite now in progress. We shall mention a few of those found in Great 
Britain. One of these is called the Ammonite, formerly the Cornu Ammonis, that 
is, the horn of Ammon, from its resemblance to those horns which are affixed to the 
head of the statue of Jupiter Ammon. 

Fig. A is a representation of the exterior of one of the numerous species of which 
this genus is composed. These shells are found of all sizes, from that of a few lines 
to nearly four feet in diameter, and above three hundred different species are said to 
have been observed. When the shell is slit, it exhibits the appearance represented 
by the annexed fig. B, for it is usually filled with stony matter, and often with trans- 
parent sparry crystals. It consists of a series of small chambers or cells, arranged 



16 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




(Fig. A.) 



(Fig. D.) 



in a form like a coiled snake, the different cells having apparently a communication 
with each other by a small tube or canal which runs near the outward margin of the 
coil. It is supposed that the animal first inhabited the innermost cell, that as it grew 
it formed larger and larger cells for itself, keeping up the communication with the 
former one. It is conceived, too, that the animal had the power of filling or emptying 
these cells, so as to regulate its motion in the water, filling them when it wanted to 
occupy the depths of the sea, and emptying them when it wished to make itself 
lighter in order to rise to the surface. The living shell to which it has the nearest 
resemblance is the nautilus. This remarkable fossil is found in all the stratified 
rocks, from the mountain limestone to the uppermost of the secondary strata. It 
thus continued to be reproduced through many succeeding ages, long after other gen- 
era, its first cotemporaries, had become extinct; but it also in its turn ceased to ex- 
ist at the period when the tertiary strata began to be formed. The shell is so ex- 
tremely thin, and so brittle, that it is rare to find perfect specimens, unless when pre- 
served by being incased in hard stone. 

There are some genera of shells in the lowest strata, containing animal remains, 
which are also found inhabiting our present seas ; but there is not a single species of 
any of the genera of shells found in the whole range of the secondary strata that is 
identical with a living species: all are extinct. In the oldest of the tertiary beds, 
some shells are found identical with living species, and the proportion of these in- 
creases the more recent the deposite, until at last they greatly predominate over the 
extinct species in the more recent deposites. It is thus evident that there has been 
an extinction of some genera and species, and a creation of others, in a constant 




(Fig. B.) 



(Fig. C.) 



GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.— SOIL.— CLIMATE. 



17 



state of progression, from the earliest periods of the earth's history. In the case of 
fossil shells, as well as other organic remains, a great proportion bear a strong anal- 
ogy to such as are now only known to inhabit tropical seas. 

Figures C and D are specimens of two spe- 
cies of a crustaceous marine animal which has 
been wholly extinct from an early period in the 
formation of the crust of the globe ; myriads of 
ages may have elapsed since it ceased to exist. 
It has not been found in any rock lying above the 
mountain limestone, and that rock is so low in the 
series of the strata, that the earth must have un- 
dergone many successive revolutions, each sepa- 
rated by an interval of vast duration, since the 
. time when these animals were inhabitants of the 
sea. There are several species of the animal, 
which has been called Trilobile, from the body 
being composed of three longitudinal divisions or 
lobes. It was first brought under the notice of 
naturalists by the name of the Dudley fossil, being 
found very frequently in the limestone near the 
town of that name in Worcestershire, not far from 
Birmingham. It is met with in some spots in such 
immense quantities that it must have had pro- 
digious powers of multiplication. In some parts 
of Wales the slate is so full of fragments of the 
animal that millions must have swarmed on the 
spot. 

Another fossil animal which is very peculiar in 
its form, is that represented in fig. E, called the lijy 
encrinite. It resembles that flower upon its stalk, 
and still more so when the several parts of which 
the flower-like extremity is composed, are separa- 
ted and spread out ; specimens of it in this state 
are not unfrequently met with. The animal lived 
in the base of the flower, and the separable parts 
stretched out like arms to seize its prey. It was 
fixed to the ground by the other extremity of the 
stalk. That stalk is not a single piece, but con- 
sists of a number of distinct joints like those of the 
back-bone, or like a necklace of beads, on which 
account the fossil has been sometimes called En- 
criniles Moniliformis, or necklace-form encrinite. 
The stalk is perforated through its whole length, 
and the joints when separated have figured sur- 
faces, such as are represented in the engraving in 
the circular bodies, a, b, c, d, e, the figure being 
different at different parts of the stalk. This fam- 
ily of radiated animals, which consists of many 
extinct genera and species, has not wholly disap- 
peared like the trilobite and ammonite ; living 
representatives of it are still found in the seas 
of the West Indies; but the lily encrinite, that 
branch of the family, is not only wholly extinct, 
but has been so ever since the period when the 

new red sandstone was deposited. It appears to have had comparatively a short ex- 
istence, for it has only been found in a limestone which occurs associated with the 
new red sandstone. 

By far the most remarkable fossil remains of extinct marine animals, are certain 
species which resemble the crocodile and alligator, and often of a magnitude which 
these never reach; these extraordinary creatures were inhabitants of our planet at a 
period of its history, when the climate of the sea that covered the deposites now form- 
ing the cliffs of Lyme Regis, in Dorsetshire, was as hot as the West Indies. 

2 




(Fig. E.) 



18 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE,— SOIL.— CLIMATE. 



19 




20 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

The most remarkable of the fossil saurians which are found in the secondary 
strata are those which have been called ichthyosaurus, plesiosaurus, megalosaurus, 
and iguanodon. The first of these is so called from the characters of the animal 
partaking at the same time of the nature of a fish and of the lizard tribe ; ichlhxjs 
and saurus being two Greek words signifying fish and lizard. Its head resembles 
that of a crocodile, only it is much larger and sharper, its snout ending in a point, al- 
most as acute as the beak of a bird : it has a most formidable supply of sharp coni- 
cal teeth, no less than sixty in each jaw. Its head was of an enormous size, for jaws 
measuring eight feet in length have been found ; and it was furnished with a pair of 
eyes of still more extraordinary proportion, for the oval hollows for that organ in a 
skull belonging to a gentleman at Bristol, measure fourteen and a half inches in their 
largest diameter, the size of a dish on which a tolerably good-sized turkey could be 
served up. The head was about a fourth of the whole length of the animal, and 
was joined to the body by a very short neck : the back-bone was composed of joints 
or vertebra different from those of land animals, and similar to those of fishes ; it 
was supplied with four paddles like those of a turtle, in the lower part of its body, 
and by means of these and its very powerful tail, it must have darted very swiftly 
through the water. It was a most singular combination of forms, for it had the 
snout of a dolphin, the teeth of a crocodile, the head and breast-bone of a lizard, ex- 
tremities like the marine mammalia, and vertebra? like a fish. We can, however, 
form no idea of the appearance of the animal when alive, except such as is conveyed 
to us by the sight of the skeleton ; a very imperfect one, no doubt, as we know by 
the difference between any animal and its skeleton placed beside it. The preceding 
representation of the complete skeleton of the ichthyosaurus, as restored in the way 
we have alluded to, is given by the Rev. W. Conybeare, the eminent geologist to 
whom we are indebted for the most complete account of these fossil saurians. 

Remains of the ichthyosaurus have been found in all the secondary strata, between 
the red sandstone and the chalk in many parts of England ; but they are most fre- 
quently met with in the lias limestone, and in greatest abundance at Lyme Regis in 
Dorsetshire. They have also been found in several places on the continent, espe- 
cially in Wurtemburgh. 

The plesiosaurus is so called from its near approach to the lizard tribe, plesion 
being the Greek for near. It has a considerable resemblance in the body to the ich 
thyosaurus, but the head is much smaller, and is altogether of a different structure ; 
but its most remarkable character is the great length of its neck. In man, all quad- 
rupeds and other mammalia, there are exactly seven joints or vertebrae in the neck ; 
and so strict is the adherence to this rule, that there is precisely the same number in 
the short, stiff neck of the whale, and the long flexible neck of the giraffe. Rep- 
tiles have from three to eight joints — birds many more; the swan, which has the most, 
is enabled to make the graceful curves of its neck by being provided with twenty- 
three of those separate vertebrae ; but the plesiosaurus had no less than forty-one. 
In order to convey to our readers an idea of the state in which fossil-bones are found, 
we have given a representation of a plesiosaurus, found in 1823 at Lyme Regis ; but 
we must remark that, mutilated as it seems, it is rare to find bones lying so nearly 
in the form of the skeleton as those are. The specimen occurred imbedded in the 
shale or slaty clay, which lies between the beds of lias limestone, and the skeleton 
has been crushed almost flat by the vast weight of stone lying above it. 

Mr. Conybeare, to whom we are indebted for the first description and name of the 
plesiosaurus, has given us the representation on page 19, of this extraordinary long- 
necked reptile, in a restored state, in the same way as he has given us a figure of the 
ichthyosaurus. 

Some fragments of the bones of a saurian of gigantic size were discovered by Dr. 
Buckland a few years ago in the quarry of Stonesfield, near Woodstock, in Oxford- 
shire. According to the opinion of Cuvier, who examined them, they must have be- 
longed to an individual of the lizard tribe, measuring forty feet in length, and having 
a bulk equal to that of an elephant seven feet high. This fossil animal was distin- 
guished by Dr. Buckland with the name of megalosaurus, on account of its great 
size, megale being Greek for great. 

In Cornwall and Devonshire, eminences of granite, serpentine, and felspar por- 
phyry, occur, while the slopes resting on them are composed of different kinds of 
slate. The granite of this district is extensively used for paving in London, though 
considered less hard and durable than that brought from Scotland. In other places 



GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.— SOIL.— CLIMATE. 



21 




The Cheesewring, ss seen from the northwest. 

the granite often assumes remarkable shapes. The Cheesewring is a natural pue 
or combination of rude granite rocks, in the parish of St. Cleer, Cornwall, between 
Liskeard and Launceston. It rises to the height of thirty-two feet, and stands near 
the top of a high hill. The stones are placed one upon another, and from the shape 
of the pile (probably resembling an ancient cheesepress) the name appears to have 
been derived. It consists of eight stones, of which the upper ones are so much larger 
than those below, and project so far over the middle and base, that it has for many 
generations excited astonishment how so ill-constructed a pile could have resisted 
the storms of such an exposed situation. Some art may possibly have been used in 
reducing the size of one of the central stones, and in clearing the base from circum- 
jacent rocks, but otherwise this curiosity is entirely a work of nature. 

On the same hill are several other similar piles of granite rocks, but not one ol 
them is so singular in its relative proportions. One stone is of the enormous meas- 
urement of eleven, yards in length, nine yards in breath, with an average thickness 
of little more than two feet. The shape of the hill is that of a truncated cone, the 
diameter of the summit being about one hundred yards. Round this flat summit is 
an immense number of small stones, piled up to form a rampart, and probably used 
in olden times both for defence and for attack on assaulters. Within the circle are 
many large masses of rocks, with small excavations on the tops of them, called 
«« rock basins," formed, in all probability, by the natural decomposition of the granite, 
under the united action of the sun, rain, and wind. Detached granules of the stone, 
and others which may be loosened by the finger, are generally found at the bottom 
of these basins, and attest their most frequent origin, though others may have been 
partly formed by man, to supply his thirst or to perform his sacrifices. 

The Kilmarth Rocks are a lofty range of half a mile in length, running east and 
west, about two miles northward from the Cheesewring, and in the parish of Linkin- 
horne, Cornwall. The westernmost pile, represented in the sketch, stands on the 
summit of this elevated ridge, and is in itself about twenty-eight feet high. It over- 
hangs at least twelve or fifteen feet toward the north ; and, when viewed from the 
east, appears so slightly based that a man or a strong gale might suffice to shove the 



22 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




Kilmarth Rocks, as seen from the soatheast. 

whole mass over the tremendous precipice ; but when surveyed from the western side, 
its foundation appears more solid, and it will require, perhaps, many ages to subvert the 
wonderful pile. The immense size of many of the granite rocks of which this ridge 
is formed, and the rude and heterogeneous manner in which they lie one upon another, 
together with the wildness and extent of the surrounding panorama, overpower the 
mind with awe and astonishment at the grandeur of the operations of nature. 

The Welsh mountains are composed chiefly of varieties of slate, with some inter- 
mixture of volcanic rocks, as basalt and trap ; while a rich coal-field, one hundred 
miles in length and from five to ten in breadth, rests upon their southern verge, ex- 
tending from Glamorgan into Pembrokeshire, being the largest coal-field in Great 
Britain. 

As coal forms so important a feature in the prosperity of Great Britain, we shall 
here devote some space to the subject of coal in that country. The annexed outline 
map* gives a general view of all the coal-fields of England ; and it will be seen that 
fully one half of the country is destitute of coal : for all that lies east and south of the 
double line Z Z, from the mouth of the Tees, in Yorkshire, to Lyme Regis, in Dor- 



* The numbers prefixed to the following places, corresponding to those on the map, show thei? 
several locations : — 



Newcastle. 

North Shields. 

South Shields. 

Sunderland. 

Durham. 

Cockermouth. 

Whitehaven. 



I 



17 Birmingham. 

18 Oxford. 

19 Gloucester. 

20 Windsor. 

21 Bristol. 

22 Bath. 

23 Colchester. 



8 Lancaster. 



24 Bedford. 

25 Cambridge. 

26 Dover. 

27 Canterbury. 

28 Maidstone. 

29 Hastings. 

30 Brighton. 



31 Portsmouth. 

32 Exeter. 

33 Plymouth. 

34 Falmouth. 

35 Caernarvon. 

36 Cardigan. 

37 Caermarthen. 



9 Liverpool. 
i0 Manchester. 

11 Scarborough. 

12 Derby. 

13 Nottingham. 

14 Leicester. 

15 Northampton. 

16 Shrewsbury. 

The dark shade of the tint shows the extent of the coalfields, 
districts of the country supplied by them. 

The lines which express the tints are in both cases parallel to each other, and in each of the twelve 
districts have a different direction, except the Newcastle and Durham, in which, for the sake of clear- 
ness, the coalfields (I.) have been left black, and the places supplied by them white. Each district is 
surrounded by a strong black outline. 



The lighter shade represents the 



GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.-SOIL.-CLIMATE. 



23 




'H%\ ENGLISH C H A ** 

A Map showing the Geological Position and Commercial Distribution of the Coal of England and Wale 8 . 



24 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

setshire, is composed of the superior secondary strata ; and although some of these 
do sometimes contain thin beds of coal of a particular kind, it may be confidently 
said, that the kind of coal which is usually consumed will never be found in those 
upper secondary strata ; and, unless under very favorable circumstances, the inferior 
kind alluded to can never be worked with profit. It will also be seen how com- 
paratively small a space the coal measures occupy. It is necessary to remind our 
readers, that -the spaces here marked with dark lines are the geological boundaries 
of the coal formations, which consist of many different kinds of stone besides coal ; 
and that it must not be supposed that workable coal is spread over the whole space 
marked by the darker shade. Not only is that far from being the case, but there is 
a very large part of all those spaces where not a trace of coal is to be seen, there 
being only sandstones, limestones, or shales, the other members of the coal for- 
mations. 

Besides showing the positions of the different coal deposites, the map exhibits the 
boundaries of the country which each supplies with fuel. We are indebted for this 
information to the evidence given by Frederick Page, Esq., before the committee of 
the House of Commons on the coal-trade, in 1830. Mr. Page stated that, in the 
course of several years' travelling over England, he had collected so much informa- 
tion as to the distribution of coals by the different inland navigations, as to be able to 
construct a map on which the boundaries were laid down : he gave a copy of that 
map to the committee, who published it along with their report. In the annexed 
map, it is to be understood that all the space included within the line which sur- 
rounds a coal deposite is supplied from that source : the larger districts are further 
distinguished by a small letter corresponding with the capital letter which marks the 
coal-field. These boundaries are, of course, not rigorously correct ; but they are suf- 
ficiently so to give a tolerably accurate general view how far the market of each 
coal-field extends, independent of foreign export and the supplies to Scotland from 
the Northumberland district, and to Ireland from the western coal-fields. The extent 
to which the consumption of a coal-field reaches depends upon a variety of circum- 
stances, such as the facility of transport by sea or by canals, the quality of the coal, 
and its price at the pit's mouth — this last must be in a great degree regulated by the 
expense of bringing it to the surface, which is very variable, according to situations. 

There are in England and Wales twelve great coal-fields, of which those marked 
I., II., IV., VI., XII., are the most important. These are : — 

I. The Northumberland and Durham fields, the almost exclusive feeders of Lon- 
don, and supplying, besides, the whole of the eastern and southern coasts from 
Berwick to Plymouth, and as far inland as the county of Bedford. Formerly 
the inland markets extended further; but the extension of canals has brought 
other and cheaper coals into competition. There is also a very large foreign 
export, and a considerable quantity is sent to Scotland. 
II. The Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire fields. 

III. The Whitehaven fields. 

IV. The South-Lancashire fields. This, with the Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire 
fields, are the foundation of English advances in woollen and cotton manufac- 
tures, the principal seats of which are upon them. 

V. The North-Staffordshire, or Pottery fields. 

VI. The South-Staffordshire, or Dudley and Warwickshire fields — not of great 
superficial extent, but immensely productive, and containing the thickest seam 
of coal in the island. It is also one great seat of iron manufactures. 
VII. The Shropshire fields, including Coal-Brook dale and the plain of Shrewsbury. 
VIII. Forest of Dean field. 
IX. South-Gloucestershire, or Bristol fields. 

X. Somersetshire field. 
XL North-Wales, or Flintshire fields. 

XII. The South-Wales fields — comparatively little worked as yet, but the most 
extensive of all, and upon which the country will have to depend when the 
other fields are exhausted. 

Thus it will be seen, that all the coal-fields, and all the great seats of English 
manufactures, lie to the north and west of the line Z Z, which is the boundary of the 
middle and superior strata of the secondary series ■ for, with the exception of some 



GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.— SOIL.— CLIMATE. 



25 



detached points in Somersetshire and Glamorganshire, on the Bristol channel, neither 
the lias limestone, nor any of the formations superior to it, are found westward of 
that line. The new red sandstone, which is immediately under the lias, and covers 
so vast a surface in the midland and northern counties, lies all to the north and west 
of the line ; many of the coal-fields are surrounded by it, and it is possible that others 
may be discovered within its domain, either where it is partially denuded, or where 
it is so thin that it may be sunk through without great expense. All searches for 
coal in the red sandstone itself would, according to every probability, end in disap- 
pointment. 

The Newcastle coal-field, however, is by far the most important of all those at 
present worked in England, either as regards the extent of the works, the produc- 
tiveness of the mines, the quality of the fuel, or the markets which it supplies. The 
area covered by this coal-field will be seen by the following map : — 




A. The coal field, tinted with horizontal lines. 

B B. Millstone grit, tinted with lines sloping to the right. 

C C. Magnesian limestone, tinted with lines sloping to the left. 

1 Alnwick. 6 North Shields. 11 Barnard Castle. 

2 Morpeth. 7 South Shields. 12 Appleby. 

3 Stannington. 8 Sunderland. 13 Darlington 

4 Newcastle. 9 Durham. 14 Stockton. 

5 Hexham. 10 Bishop Auckland. 15 Hartlepool. 

The length of the coal-field, from the Tees to the Coquet, is almost fifty-five miles ; 
its greatest breadth, between the mouth of the Tyne and the western pits, about 
twenty-two miles. It is bounded on the east, from a short distance south of Shields 
very nearly to its southern termination, by strata of magnesian limestone, under 
which the coal measures have been found to be prolonged in many places : along the 
northern half of its eastern limit, the coal measures are exposed in the cliffs on the 
seashore. The whole of the western side is bounded by a coarse sandstone, called 
the millstone grit, upon which the coal measures repose. 

The coal measures are not spread horizontally over the area, but he in an inclined 
position, and at different angles of inclination in different parts of it. The conse- 
quence of this is, that the same seams are found at much greater depths from the 
surface in one colliery than in another. Nor will two distant parts of the field give 
the same succession of strata in a vertical section, either as regards the beds of stone, 
or the seams of coal, in point of quality and thickness: the same seam of coal swells 
out in one place, and in another thins off so much as not to be worth working ; and 



26 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

the same thing occurs with the sandstone and shale: a b'ed of stone, or seam of coal, 
which in one pit is scarcely perceptible, will increase in another pit to several fept. 
Neither is it to be understood that these coal strata are continuous over the whole 
area, although that they once were so is more than probable. In many parts of the 
district, a vertical section of the ground would at one time have presented an appear- 
ance similar to the following : — 

Fig. l. 
h "f" e 




But the section below (Fig. 2) shows that the surface has been deeply indented, and 
great portions of the superior strata have been carried away, so that it exhibits the 
following appearance : — 




This deep furrowing of the land, which is common more or less to every coal-field 
in the island, has been ascribed by geologists to the action of great floods at a period 
antecedent to all human records, carrying along with them gravel and blocks of 
stone, which have ploughed up the ground and borne oft' the loosened materials to 
be afterward deposited in distant parts, leaving behind them extensive valleys. The 
effect of this action has been called denudation by geologists ; and the valleys so 
formed, which are not peculiar to coal-fields, but exist in many other parts of Eng- 
land, are called valleys of denudation. The weald of Sussex and Kent, between the 
South Downs and the North Downs, is a remarkable example on a great scale. The 
surface of the coal-field of Northumberland and Durham has been scooped out in a 
remarkable degree by these denudations. The valley through which the river Teame 
runs extends from north to south, between the Wear and Tyne, and is between one 
and two miles broad. The coal measures must here have been originally continu- 
ous, entirely across the valley from hill to hill; but they have been excavated and 
carried bodily away, not only to the level of the bed of the Teame, but to the amount 
of sometimes more than one hundred and eighty feet beneath the actual bed of that 
river. Under the surface of the fields, on both sides of the Teame, drifted rubbish 
and gravel fill a broad and deep trough in the coal measures ; from this trough and 
the valley above it there has been a total removal of the superior strata, including 
several seams of coal, which, had they been continuous in their original extent, would 
have been highly valuable. 

The export of coals from the Tyne and the Wear amounted, in 1828, to about 
three millions two hundred thousand tons, and the consumption on the spot to about 
six hundred and sixty thousand tons. Thus the total annual sale of coals from the 
Newcastle and Durham coal-fields is probably not much under five millions of tons. 



GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.— SOIL.— CLIMATE. 27 

So vast a consumption leads naturally to the inquiry, " What, at this rate of annual 
excavation, will be the probable duration of this coal-field ?" This question occupied 
a great deal of the attention of the committees of both houses of Parliament, already 
spoken of, and there was a very wide difference in the answers which they received. 
Mr. Taylor was asked by the lords' committee, if he had formed any calculation of 
the extent, produce, and duration, of the Durham and Northumberland coal-fields; 
and he replied that he had endeavored to do so, and gave in the following statement, 
which he said, however, was only to be considered as an approximation : — 

He estimates the Durham coal-field south of the Tyne to embrace 

an area of -- 594 square miles. 

The Northumberland coal-field 243 

Amounting to ----- - 837 " 

And he considers that of this there had been excavated - - 105 " 

Leaving, in 1829 732 

Then estimating the workable coal strata at an average thickness 
of 12 feet, the contents of one square mile will be 12,390,000 
tons, and of 732 square miles 9,069,480,000 tons. 

And deducting one third part for loss in working, and from dis- 
turbances in the strata 3,073,160,000 " 



There remain 6,046,320,000 " 

This very comfortable and consolatory view of the present race, and of that of a far 
distant posterity, as regards this valuable commodity, is, however, a good deal dis- 
turbed by the opinions of Dr. Buckland and Mr. Sedgwick, the professors of geology 
at Oxford and Cambridge. Dr. Buckland being asked whether he considered the es- 
timate of Mr. Taylor correct, answered that he thought it much exaggerated. Mr. 
Sedgwick is also of opinion that Mr. Taylor's estimate is too great ; and both pro- 
fessors state the same reasons for differing so widely from the views of Mr. Taylor. 
He has assumed that there is a continuous thickness of twelve feet of workable coal 
over the whole area of seven hundred and thirty-two square miles; but all experi- 
ence, both of this coal-field and of every other, is unfavorable to this assumption, for 
not only are the coal seams extremely variable in thickness, but they are equally so 
in quality, as we have already shown. The opinions of the learned professors "are 
confirmed by another scientific observer, Mr. Bakewell, who, in his "Introduction to 
Geology," discusses this question, and calculates that the coal-fields now under con- 
sideration will not last above three hundred and sixty years. All these calculations, 
however, have reference only to the best qualities of coal — to those which can be 
raised at an expense sufficiently low to enable them to be sold at a remunerating 
price, in competition with other coals. 

It appears to be very clearly made out, that all those parts of the country which 
are now supplied with fuel from the Northumberland and Durham mines will con- 
tinue to enjoy that advantage for the next four hundred years ; and those who are 
not so selfish and unpatriotic as to be indifferent to the fate of their posterity after the 
year 2,233, will learn with satisfaction that, as far as England's prosperity is con- 
nected with an abundant supply of coal, there is no danger of its sustaining any check 
for a much more extended period, as there is a store in reserve far greater than there 
was in the whole of the north-of-England field before a single fire was lighted by its 
produce. This extensive repository is in the coal-field of South Wales. 

The geographical position of this vast deposite of the coal measures will be seen 
by the map on page 28. It lies in a great basin of the carboniferous limestone, which 
rises from under the coal strata nearly all around the limit of the coal-field. In a 
part of Pembrokeshire the limestone is wanting, and the coal strata rest upon slate, 
which is inferior to the limestone, and near Narbeth they are in contact with the old 
red sandstone, which lies between the slate and the limestone. In a part of the 
southern boundary, in Glamorganshire, the coal measures are separated from the 
limestone by a detached deposite of strata of posterior formation to them, and there- 
fore lying upon them, viz., new red sandstone and lias limestone. 



28 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




tn e » 3 « 

§ w a; ^ 
u <u uj" fci s- _: 

H »-5 cc C fc .£P » 

I '■ ' ' '11 

<jpqO 









GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.— SOIL.— CLIMATE. 29 

The coal measures do not lie horizontally within this limestone basin, but in a 
trough shape, being deepest toward the middle, and rising up toward the outer limits, 
the ends of the several strata cropping out, as the miners term it, that is, appearing 
successively at the surface. They do not, however, form of one uniform sweep or in- 
verted arch ; for there has been a partial up-heaving of the strata, so that a section 
across the field from Bridgend, due north, would present the following appearance : — 




There are thus two basins, the one lying to the north, the other to the south 01 a 
high ridge, a, which runs from Aberavon, half a mile north of the Avon, by Cefn 
Eglwysillan, two or three miles north of Caerphilly, a little beyond which it disap- 
pears. In the northern basin, which is by far the most extensive, the strata are much 
less inclined than in the southern basin ; for in the former the dip of the strata is 
generally under ten degrees, while in the latter it is often forty-five degrees, and up- 
ward. The whole coal-field is traversed by fykes ox faults, generally in a north and 
south direction, which throw all the strata from three hundred to six hundred feet up 
or down. The nature of these faults we have heretofore explained. On the western 
termination of the basin, in St. Bride's bay, the strata exhibit the most extraordinary 
marks of confusion and derangement, being vertical and twisted in every possible di- 
rection. 

The extent of this coal-field, and the thickness of the seams, have been variously 
stated by different authors ; but the estimate which is perhaps the most to be relied 
upon, is that of the Rev. William Conybeare, the eminent geologist, who has long 
resided in the country, and is perfectly familiar with its geology. It is contained in 
a letter addressed by him to Henry Warburton, Esq., M. P., published in the report 
of the committee of the house of commons, already referred to. Mr. Conybeare 
makes three great divisions of the coal seams — the lower, middle, and upper series ; 
and he assigns to them, respectively, the average thickness of thirty-five, fifteen, and 
ten feet, making altogether sixty feet of workable coal. Martin, who described this 
coal-field, makes them amount to ninety-five feet ; and Mr. Conybeare thinks that 
Martin does not overstate the amount, provided all the seams be taken into the ac- 
count. But Mr. Conybeare's calculation only includes the workable coals, and he 
considers that those seams can not be worked with profit where it is necessary to go 
lower than two hundred fathoms, or twelve hundred feet, for beyond this the expense 
of drainage, &c, becomes enormous. Keeping the same considerations in view, Mr. 
Conybeare makes the following estimate of the area occupied by the coal-seams: — 

For the lower series 525 square miles, at 35 feet thick. 

100 " 17 

For the middle series 360 " 16 «* 

For the upper series 64 " 10 " 

This, it is calculated, after deducting one half for loss and for what has been already 
worked, will amount to about eleven billions four hundred and twenty-three millions 
seven hundred and fifty thousand tons ; and taking the annual consumption of all 
England at fifteen millions of tons, the provision of good coal in the South Wales 
basin is sufficient for seven hundred and sixty years. ^ Taking all that remains in the 
Northumberland and Durham coal-fields, and all the other coal-fields of England to- 
gether at three times that amount, and which we are inclined to think would not be 
an over-estimate, we have a supply of good coal, which, at the present rate of con- 
sumption, would last above three thousand years. How long beyond that time the 
inferior seams will yield a supply of fuel, we shall leave posterity to calculate. 



30 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




Staffordshire Colliers. 



To the east of the line drawn from Exmouth to Bath, and thence by Gloucester, 
Leicester, and Tadcaster, to Stockton-upon-Tees, we find the upper rocks of the sec- 
ondary formation, presenting in succession red sandstone and red marl, lias limestone 
and clay, oolitic limestone, green sand with clay, and finally chalk. Connected with 
the red marl, great strata of rock-salt are found ; these are extensively dug in 
Cheshire and Worcestershire for domestic use. 

The limestone, like the granite, frequently assumes very singular forms and appear- 
ances, and has sometimes been named from its similarity to works of art. This is 
the case with the Matlock high tor of Derbyshire, an engraving of which is pre- 
sented in the next page. 

The word tor is a Saxon one, from whence, according to the etymologists, comes our 
word tower. The Latin turris, the Saxon tor, and the English tower, appear to be 
related in their signification ; meaning, in their original sense, something erected on 
an eminence. We find preserved the syllable tor, as we find many other words 
which are of what are termed Cimbro-Celtic and Teutonic or Gothic origin, in the 
names of many places of Britain. 

Matlock is well known as a summer resort of invalids and idlers, as well as of 
those who go, for recreation or information, to see the wonders of the peak of Der- 
byshire — the rocks, mines, and caverns, and other mountainous scenery of that truly 
singular and interesting region. " Matlock dale,," says Mr. Jewitt, in a little work 
called the " Matlock companion," " is naturally a deep narrow ravine, how produced, 
or by what convulsion, must be left to geologists to determine. One side is formed 
by lofty perpendicular limestone rocks, the other by the sloping sides of giant moun- 
tains ; along the bottom runs the Derwent, sometimes pent up in a narrow channel, 
and obstructed by the fragments which have, from time to time, fallen from the beet- 
ling tor, and sometimes spreading like a lucid lake, and reflecting as a mirror the 
beautiful but softened tints of the overhanging foliage." 

Matlock dale, which in the time of De Foe was almost inaccessible from the want 
of a road, and which, still more recently, was praised as being a retired, secluded 
spot, now lies on the direct road from London to Manchester. This, as is well re- 
marked by Mr. Jewitt, though destroying the previous character of the place, has 
brought it more into notice, and a much larger accession of visiters than it could 
nave otherwise received. 

The high tor is a huge rock, which rises almost perpendicularly from the Derwent 
to a height of upward of 400 feet. The lower part is covered with foliage, but the 
upper part presents a broad bold front of gray limestone. It forms a part of the 
chain of rocks which bound the river on the east, but from its superior height and 
boldness is one of the most remarkable of the objects of Matlock dale, and is dis- 
tinguished for its effect, even in the midst of scenery all of which is celebrated for 



GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE— SOIL.— CLIMATE. 



31 




The High Tor at Matlock. 



2Z DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

its picturesque beauty. On the opposite side is Masson, a rock or mountain of great- 
er elevation than the tor, but inferior to it as a striking and picturesque object. 

Lias, which extends from Lyme in Dorsetshire to Whitby in Yorkshire, is remark- 
able for the remains which it presents of the large saurian reptiles. Beds of oolite 
limestone, so called from the small egg-like globules contined in it, cover the south- 
ern part of Gloucestershire, and a great part of Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Rut- 
landshire, and the eastern side of Lincolnshire. The Portland stone, so extensively 
used for building, and which is quarried in the isle of Portland, belongs to this class 
of rocks. The chalk exists everywhere to the southeast of a line commencing near 
Dorchester on the south coast, and passing through Wilts, Berks, Norfolk, and so 
on to Flamborough head — excepting in Sussex and Kent, where it has been carried 
off by denudation, exposing a peculiar formation called the wealden, and in the bed of 
the Thames near London, and one or two other places, where tertiary beds of clay 
occur. 

The chalk formation often juts out, and in some cases, as in the celebrated cliff of 
Dover, called " Shakspere's Cliff'" (see engraving), forms a very prominent feature 
of the landscape. In the first scene of the fourth act of Lear, the blind Gloster, 
while wandering on the heath, having met his son Edgar, who does not discover 
himself, asks him, " Dost thou know Dover ?" and when the latter answers, " Ay, 
Master," rejoins — 

" There is a cliff, whose high and bending head 
Looks fearfully in the confined deep ; 
Bring me but to the very brim of it. 

From that place 

I shall no leading need." 

From the first two of these lines, the particular cliff here depicted has probably been 
fixed upon as that which the poet must have had in his mind. The summit of this 
portion of the chalky battlement formerly overhung its base, and, as Gloster forcibly 
expresses it, looked fearfully in (not on, as it has often been printed) the confined 
deep. Shakspere's Cliff, however, has now lost this distinguishing peculiarity. So 
many portions have successively fallen from it, that, instead of bending over the sea, 
it now retires at the top toward the land, and, as may be observed in the engraving, 
part of the precipice is broken off into a declivity. Another effect has been, that its 
height is considerably diminished, and the look down is not now so fearful as it must 
have been in Shakspere's days. 

Having led his father some way farther on, Edgar at length pretends to have 
brought him to the neighborhood of the cliff. He then exclaims — 

" Come on, sir, here's the place : — Stand still; how fearful 
And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eye so low ! 
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air 
Show scarce so gross as beetles : halfway down 
Hangs one that gathers samphire ; dreadful trade ! 
Methinks, he seems no bigger than his head ; 
The fishermen that walk upon the beach 
Appear like mice ; and yon tall anchoring bark 
Diminish'd to her cock ; her cock, a buoy 
Almost too small for sight : the murmuring surge, 
That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes, 
Can not be heard so high. I'll look no more, 
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight 
Topple down headlong." 

There has been some disputation among the commentators as to the poetical merits 
of these lines, and Dr. Johnson has chosen to say, that he is far from thinking the de- 
scription to be wrought to the utmost excellence of poetry. He conceives that it is 
unnatural for the mind, when one is looking down a precipice, to be made to occupy 
itself with the observation of particulars, instead of being overwhelmed by the one 
great and dreadful image of irresistible destruction. It is to be considered, however, 
as Mr. Mason has well remarked, that Edgar is here describing only an imaginary 
precipice, or, at least, not one which he was actually looking down from. The pas- 
sage is to be read with a recollection of the character, or assumed character, of Ed- 
gar ; and whatever exaggeration there may be in it, which is not sanctioned by the 
spirit of poetic representation, may be very fairly set down to the over-excited fancy 
and exalted language in which, as "poor Tom," the speaker throughout indulge?. 



GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.— SOIL.— CLIMATE. 



33 




34 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

Some of the lines, however, independently altogether of this dramatic reference, are 
of exquisite beauty. What, for instance, can be more musically descriptive than- 

" The crows and choughs that wing the midway air" ? 

or, 

" The murmuring surge, 

That on the unnumher'd idle pebbles chafes, 
Can not be heard so high" ? 

These words bring the scene, not only to the eyes, but almost to the ear ; they give 
both the sights and the sounds. 

Nor must the remarkable formau >ns of clay be forgotten, one of which, the " Chit 
Rock," at Sidmouth (see engraving;, will long be remembered, although now its 
pictorial representation alone exists. Previous to the great storm of November, 1824, 
which extended over all the north of Europe, and was felt most sensibly upon the 
southern coast of England, this little rock formed a pretty feature in the sea view, 
and was the only object which broke the uniformity of the prospect. It was a mass 
of indurated clay, the last wreck of the land, which, at no very remote period, un- 
doubtedly extended itself in this direction, and which has been gradually washed into 
the sea. The work of destruction is yet going on, and large pieces of the cliffs not 
unfrequently fall down (particularly under Salcombe hill) in rainy weather. The 
conspicuous situation of Chit Rock made it an object of interest, and gave rise to an 
annual festival among the fishermen, who every year formed a procession at its base, 
and crowned the oldest member of their body king of Chit Rock ; some of them 
climbed to the summit, where they fixed a flag, and a day of feasting usually con- 
cluded with a parting bowl upon the rock, which was partaken of by as many as 
could get to the top, and find a footing upon its very narrow dimensions. 

The great storm, which destroyed so much shipping on the coast, and consider- 
ably damaged the breakwater at Plymouth, was felt very severely at Sidmouth. It 
took place about one o'clock, in a dark November morning. The beautiful beach 
was destroyed, and washed many yards up into the town ; the library and places of 
amusement fronting the sea were much damaged, the lower parts of the houses 
filled with water, and the inmates, in a number of instances, Avere taken from their 
bedroom windows in boats. When the morning dawned, the streets of the town 
were found filled with sand, stones, and rubbish, the shore was covered with wrecks, 
and Chit Ptock, which had braved so many storms, was gone. 

Subsequent visiters regret the loss of this little rock. It was not much in itself, 
but it was the only object in view on that side, and was prized accordingly. It was 
also a goal to be attained by those who were actively disposed ; and most persons 
who visited Sidmouth, once at least during their stay, made an attempt to reach it. 
This was a matter of some little difficulty ; it was only at low water that it could be 
done, and the rocks were so slippery, from the slimy seaweed by which they were 
always covered, that many a slip into the water has been the consequence of an inse- 
cure step, or a leap from one stone to another. 

The sketch from which our engraving is taken had been made but a short time be- 
fore the great storm, and not long after the celebration of the festival. 

Tin ore, containing about three parts metal out of four, is found in thick veins or 
vertical beds in the granite of Cornwall, where it has been wrought since before the 
conquest of the country by the Romans. Copper ore is also found extensively in that 
district, generally in continuation of veins, which, in the upper parts, have been com- 
posed of tin ore ; and in several of the same veins, lead, zinc, and antimony, are 
found. A mountain of copper ore, named Parys mountain, has long been wrought in 
the isle of Anglesea, but is now supposed to be nearly exhausted. 

Next in importance to coal, as a mineral product, is iron, which is extensively dif- 
fused throughout England, though chiefly wrought in the neighborhood of coal, on 
account of that fuel being required to smelt it. In 1839, this valuable metal was 
produced in South Wales to the amount of 380,000 tons. 

The great deposites of clay ironstone are in the coal measures ; that is, in the strata 
of shale, clays, sandstones, and slates, which alternate with the layers of coal. It 
has been well observed by Mr. Conybeare, in his " Geology of England and Wales," 
that " the occurrence of this most useful of metals in immediate connexion with the 
fuel requisite for its reduction, and the limestone which facilitates that reduction, is 



GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE— CLIMATE.— SOIL, 




36 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

an instance of arrangement so happily suited to the purposes of human industry, thai 
it can hardly be considered as recurring: unnecessarily to final causes, if we conceive 
that this distribution of the rude materials of the earth was determined with a view 
to the convenience of its inhabitants," Clay ironstone is not confined to the coal 
measures, but occurs frequently in some of the superior strata, between the chalk and 
the coal measures, and sometimes, though more rarely, in the tertiary, sedimentary 
deposites which lie above the chalk. The ore is often met with in thin continuous 
strata, but it seldom happens, when found in the coal measures, that there is only a 
single stratum of it ; there are usually several strata — from ten to forty in the same 
tract of country — the thickness of them varying from half an inch to sixteen inches ; 
and they generally present, at the same time, differences in their chymical composi- 
tion. Clay ironstone is not confined to the coal measures, but occurs frequently in 
detached nodules, imbedded in the strata of clay or shale, varying in size from that 
of a bean to five feet in diameter, and half these dimensions in thickness, having, for 
the most part, a flattened form. They often lie together in one place, at regular dis- 
tances, forming an almost continuous bed ; but more usually the nodules are scattered 
promiscuously through the clay, but with their longer diameter parallel to the lines 
of stratification in the coal measures. In weight they vary from an ounce to upward 
of a ton. The size of the nodules most commonly found is about a foot in the longest 
diameter. They frequently contain shells, and impressions of plants similar to those 
met with in the shale of the coal measures. The following specimens are from 
Chesterfield and Alfreton, in Derbyshire : — 





-A plant of die Fern tribe, called Neu- [Fig- 2. — A portion of a plant which Martin, in bia 
ropteris by botanists.] " Petrifica Derbiensia," considers to be allied to 

the Fir tribe] 

The chief other districts where iron is wrought, are Staffordshire, Worcestershire, 
and Yorkshire; the entire produce in 1839 was a million of tons. In an ac- 
count of the mineral productions of England, it would be improper to overlook its 
clay, so extensively used in the manufacture of pottery (chiefly in Staffordshire), and 
in making bricks and tiles for building. 

The great southeast division of England, in which a comparatively level surface 
prevails, exhibits a soil which is either chiefly chalky, or chiefly clayey, according to 
the character of the substratum. Interspersed are a few sandy tracts, of which 
Bagshot heath may be cited as an example. In the mountainous districts, the usual 
light soil resulting from the early rocks prevails, excepting where, in the north, there 



VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. 37 

has been a peaty admixture. Upon the whole, England may be said to possess a 
large proportion of good and productive soil. Probably not above one ninth of the 
entire surface (Wales being included) is unsusceptible of tillage. 

The climate of England is, as already mentioned, remarkable for its exemption 
from extremes of heat and cold. It displays an uncommon amount of variation 
within a narrow range. The average temperature in winter is about 42° of Fahr- 
renheit ; in summer, the day temperature is generally about 62°. It is only on rare 
occasions that the thermometer reaches 80°, or sinks below 20°. The neighborhood 
of the sea, which partly accounts for this moderation, is also the cause why the cli- 
mate of England is more humid than is usual in continental countries of similar lat- 
itude. Being inclined to cold and damp, it is more favorable to the growth than to 
the ripening of vegetable productions. It is certainly not unfavorable to either the 
physical or moral condition of the people. Perhaps even its uncertainty has been 
the subject of too much grumbling. On this point we may adduce the cheerful opin- 
ion of Charles II., as recorded by Sir William Temple. " I must needs," says Sir 
William, " add one thing more in favor of our climate, which I heard the king say, 
and I thought new and right, and truly like a king of England that loved and es- 
teemed his own country: it was in reply to some of the company that were reviling 
the English climate, and extolling those of Italy and Spain, or at least of France! 
He said he thought that was the best climate where he could be abroad in the air 
with pleasure, or at least without trouble and inconvenience, the most davs of the 
year, and the most hours of the day ; and this he thought he could be in England more 
than in any other country in Europe." Devonshire and some adjacent districts on 
the southern coast enjoy a temperature which in winter is, at an average, two, three 
four, and even in some instances five degrees above the rest ; and these districts are 
therefore recommended for the residence of persons affected by pulmonarv disease. 



CHAPTER II. 
VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. 

TriE most conspicuous feature in the botany of England is the fresh and luxuriant 
herbage, resulting from the humidity of the climate, and which, though apt to be 
overlooked by the natives from familiarity, never fails to strike the minds of foreign- 
ers with surprise. 

Much of the surface was formerly under wood ; but this has for ages been chiefly 
confined to particular forests, to the neighborhood of great mansions, and the enclo- 
sures of fields. Several large royal forests still exist in England, the most consider- 
able being New Forest, in Hampshire (66,942 acres), and Dean Forest, in Gloucester- 
shire (23,015 acres). That of Windsor, though famed from its situation and the 
poetry of Pope, is much smaller, being only 4,402 acres. These were anciently the 
scenes of courtly sport, but are n^w in part reduced to cultivation, or reserved for 
the production of timber to be us^d for the public service. The parks around the 
seats of the nobility and gentry are a peculiar and most inviting feature of the Eng- 
lish landscape. A mixture of green open glades with masses of old well-crown 
timber, they are scenes of great sylvan beauty; while the existence of so & much 
pleasure-reserved ground in a country where nearly every acre would be profitable 
under tillage, conveys a strong impression of the opulence of England. The princi- 
pal trees are the oak, elm, beech, ash, chestnut, sycamore, poplar, and willow. The 
vine was at one time extensively cultivated in southern England, but is now seen 
only in a few detached places. 

The leading grain in England is wheat ; barley, oats, and rye, being in a great 
measure local to the less-favored districts. The turnip and potato are almost every 
where cultivated ; and peas, beans, and clover, are extensively diffused. Hops are 
produced in the county of Surrey, Worcester, and Hereford. Hemp, flax, and some 
othe/ useful productions of the soil, are less conspicuous. The principal fruit-trees 



38 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

are the apple, pear, cherry, and plum ; hut many others are cultivated under partic- 
ularly careful circumstances. The English garden produces a great variety of pot- 
herbs, most of which have been introduced from the continent within the last three 
centuries. 

Agriculture is, in England, in a progressive state, but is yet not nearly so far ad- 
vanced as in the better parts of Scotland. Previous to the eighteenth century, no 
advance had been made from the most simple modes of tillage and husbandry. The 
chief improvements since then are thus enumerated in a popular work : " The grad- 
ual introduction of a better system of rotation, since the publication of Tull's ' Horse- 
hoeing Husbandry,' and other agricultural works, from 1700 to 1750 ; the improve- 
ment of live-stock, commenced by Bakewell about 1760 ; the raised-drill system oi 
growing turnips, the use of lime, and the convertible husbandry, by Pringle, and more 
especially by Dawson, about 1765 ; the improved swing-plough by Small, about 1790 ; 
and the improved thrashing-machine, by Mickle, about 1795. The field-culture of 
the potato, shortly after 1750 ; the introduction of the Swedish turnip, about 1790 ; 
of spring wheat, about 1795 ; of summer wheat, about 1800 ; and of mangel-wurtzel 
more recently, have, with the introduction of other improved field-plants, and improved 
b.eeds of animals, contributed to increase the products of agriculture ; as the enclo- 
sing of common field lands and wastes, and the improvements of mosses and marshes, 
have contributed to increase the produce and salubrity of the general surface of the 
country." 

Mr. M'Culloch calculates that twelve millions of acres are cultivated in England 
as follows : — 

Wheat, 3,800,000 ac 

Barley and rye, 900,000 < 

Oats and beans, 3,000,000 < 

Clover, 1,300,000 < 

Roots (turnips, potatoes, &c.) 1,200,000 

Hops and garden products, ------ 150,000 

Fallow, 1,650,000 



12,000,000 



The value of the crops is estimated by the same writer at £72,000,000. He also 
calculates 17,000,000 acres of pasture-land as producing £59,000,000. 

The chief defects of the agricultural system of England are in the modes of tillage. 
Cumbrous machinery is employed to do what might be better done by a lighter and 
cheaper kind: thus, five houses, and even more, are sometimes seen at one plough, 
while the heaviest lands in Scotland require only two. The virtue of draining is 
scarcely dreamt of in many districts of England, while in Scotland it is in some pla- 
ces doubling the produce, besides improving the salubrity of the climate. English 
farmers are too little educated to be ready to adopt improved modes of agriculture ; 
and, among the class of landlords, these have hitherto been too much overlooked.* 
It seems surprising, yet is quite true, that in one district of the island of Great Britain, 
expensive and unproductive modes, scarcely in the least better than those which pre- 
vailed during the wars of the roses, will be followed, without the least suspicion that 
they are wrong, although other districts, which might be reached by a day's journey, 
present appearances of a reflecting skill and dexterity, the general diffusion of which 
would be attended with incalculable benefit to both landlords and tenants. It is grat- 
ifying, however, to know that this state of things is not likely to last much longer. 
The English nobility are now supporting an agricultural association, which is to pro- 
ceed after the manner of the eminently useful Highland society of Scotland, in pro- 
moling improvements in this important branch of the national industry. We may 
therefore hope, in another generation, to see the splendid soil of England turned to 
its full account. 

* We have been assured that, in some districts, where the stranger is surprised to see the flail still 
in operation, the farmers and landlords are not unaware of the superiority of the thrashing-machine ; 
but having only the alternative of supporting the laboring class by this means, or in the condition of 
paupers, they prefer the former. It is needless to remark, that this is only a misapplication of the 
powers of the laboring class, which can only tend to increase poverty, and which we may hope to see 
in time abandoned. 



THE PEOPLE.— THEIR CHARACTER. 



39 



CHAPTER III 



THE PEOPLE.— THEIR CHARACTER. 



The constituent elements of the English population are to be traced in the history 
of the country. The first inhabitants were Britons (see engraving, below), probably 
a mixed Celtic race, and who, during the time of the possession of the country by the 
Romans, must have become slightly changed by the admixture of that race. Upon 
a scattered population of Romanized Britons came the great wave of the Saxon in- 
vasion, in the fifth and sixth centuries. The Britons are usually said to have been 
driven to the west ; but probably this was not so much the case as has been generally 
thought, for it is rarely that any invasion expels the mass of a people from the ground 
they have long occupied. After this, however, the predominant element of English 
society was undoubtedly Saxon, the Norman conquest only adding to it a French ar- 
istocracy, which little affected the great bulk of the population. The English, 
therefore, exclusive of the Welsh, who are Britons almost unchanged, may be re- 
garded as in the main a Teutonic people, an admixture of British or Celtic entering 
into the composition always in less and less measure as we advauce from Wales 
toward the eastern coasts, where the people are nearly pure Saxon. 




s££i 



Ancient Britons. 



According to an acute writer: " The Saxon Englishman is distinguished from otn- 
er races by a stature rather low, owing chiefly to the neck and limbs beino- short, bv 
the trunk and vital system being large, and the complexion, hides,* and hair, light"* 
and by the face being broad, the forehead large, and the upper and back part' of^ the 



Plural of iris, the colored part of the eye, surrounding the pupil. 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES 




Ancient Briton on Horseback. 

head round, and rather small. In his walk, the Englishman [understanding the Sax- 
on Englishman] rolls, as it were, on his cejitre. This is caused by the breadth of 
the trunk, and the comparative weakness of the limbs. The broader muscles, there- 
fore, of the former, aid progression by a sort of rolling motion, throAving forward first 
one side and then another. The mental faculties of the Englishman are not abso- 
lutely of the highest order; but the absence of passion gives them relatively a great 
increase, and leaves a mental character equally remarkable for its simplicity and its 
practical worth. The most striking of those points in English character, which 
may be called fundamental, are cool observation, unparalleled single-mindedness, and 
patient perseverance. This character is remarkably homogeneous. 

" The cool observation of the Englishman is the foundation of some other subordi- 
nate, but yet important points in his character. One of the most remarkable of these 
is that real curiosity, but absence of wonder, which makes the nil admirari a maxim 
of English society. It is greatly associated, also, with that reserve for which the 
English are not less remarkable. 

" The single-mindedness of the Englishman is the foundation of that sincerity and 
bluntness, which are perhaps his chief characteristics; which fit him so" well 
for the business of life, and on which his commercial character depends; which 
make him hate (if he can hate anything) all crookedness of procedure, and which 
alarm him even at the insincerities and compliances of politeness. 

" The perseverance of the Englishman is the foundation of that habit which guides 
so many of his own actions, and that custom in which he participates with all his 
neighbors. It is this which makes universal cant, as it has been profanely termed,* 
not reasoning, the basis of his morals ; and precedent, not justice, the basis of his 
jurisprudence. But it is this also which, when his rights are outraged, produces that 
grumbling which, when distinctly heard, effectually protects them ; and it is this 
which creates that public spirit, to which, on great emergencies, he rises with all 
his fellow-countrymen, and in which he persists until its results astonish even the 
nations around him. 



* The word must not here be understood as 
is very innocent. 



lplyiDg hypocrisy, of which the Saxon temperament 



THE PEOPLE.— THEIR CHARACTER. 41 

" Now, a little reflection will show, that of the three fundamental qualities I have 
mentioned, the first seeming may easily be less amiable than the final result shall 
be useful. To a stranger of differently constructed mind, the cold observation, and, 
in particular, the slowness and reserve which must accompany it, may seem unso- 
ciable ; but they are inseparable from such a construction of mind, and they indicate 
not pride, but that respect for his feelings which the possessor thinks them entitled 
to, and which he would not violate in others. The dignity, therefore, which in this 
case the Englishman feels, is not hauteur ; and he is as rarely insolent to those who 
are below, as timid to those who are above him. 

" In regard to the absence of passion from the English mind, it is this which forbids 
one to be charmed with music, to laugh at comedy, to cry at tragedy, to show any 
symptom of joy or sorrow in the accidents of real life ; which has no accurate no- 
tion of grief or wretchedness, and can not attach any sort of meaning to the word 
ecstasy; and which, for all these reasons, has a perfect perception of whatever is 
ridiculous. Hence it is, that in his domestic, his social, and his public relations, it is 
perhaps less affection than duty that guides the conduct of an Englishman ; and, if 
any one questions the moral grandeur which this sentiment may attain, let him call 
to mind the example of it, which, just before the victory of Trafalgar, was given by 
Nelson in the simple and sublime communication to his fleet — ' England expects 
every man to do his duty!'' Which is the instance that equals this even in the forged 
records of Roman glory? Happily, too, the excess of hatred is as little known to 
the Englishman as excess of love ; and revenge is abhorrent to his nature. Even in 
the pugilistic combat he shakes hands with his antagonist before he begins ; he 
scorns to strike him when he is down ; and, whether vanquished or victor, he leaves 
his antagonist neither cast down nor triumphant. 

" The extraordinary value of such a character is obvious enough. British liberty 
and British commerce are its results: neither the Scottish nor Irish mind would have 
attained them." 

In this sketch, though clever and forcible, some conspicuous features of the social 
character of the English are overlooked. The domesticity of the Englishman's mode 
of life is very remarkable, when taken in contrast with the lounging, open-air exist- 
ence of continental nations. The Englishman delights in his home, and spends 
much of his time in it — a result to which the nature of the climate undoubtedly con- 
tributes. He appreciates his home very highly, calls his house his castle, and prides 
himself on its being inviolable even by the emissaries of the law. The members of 
his family, his wife, his sons and daughters, are taken along by him in most of his 
recreations and pleasures. The conjugal tie is deemed peculiarly sacred, insomuch 
that the slightest dishonor offered to it is universally resented. It can not be said, 
however, that the affections of kindred are much recognised in England beyond the 
nearest class of relations. 

The strong sense of rectitude which animates the Englishman is conspicuous in 
his love of what he calls fair play, which he carries even into those coarse amuse- 
ments, boxing, cock-fighting, dog-fighting, 6cc, a love of Avhich (now fast declining) 
forms one of the less amiable traits of the national character. His benevolence shines 
in the liberality of the legal provision for the poor, and in the numberless charitable 
institutions of all kinds which are supported in. the country, as well as in the readi- 
ness which the nation has always displayed to hold out a hand of succor to distress 
in other quarters of the world. Cleanliness of person and household, and a love of 
comfort both in food and in domestic accommodation, distinguish the people at large. 
In all personal and domestic circumstances, the substantial is kept strongly in view, 
even while the ostensible object is ornament. The aristocratic institutions of the 
country have mixed, with the sturdy independence of the English character, a con- 
siderable reverence for external and accidental distinctions, and created a disposition, 
pervading almost all classes, to hold forth appearances rather above than below their 
means. For the same reason, as well as that abstract truths are not readily appre- 
hended by the English ifttellect, there is a strong and general disposition to cling to 
ancient .practices and forms in both government and law. The rural tenantry and 
the tradesmen of the smaller towns are generally subservient to the landed classes; 
and it is chiefly in large towns that new political dogmas find any warm advocacy. 

Horse-racing and field-sports are the qhief amusements of the nobility and gentry, 
and are practised upon a scale so extensive, and with apparatus so perfect in aJl its 
parts, including a breed of horses of the highest excellence, that they would probably 



42 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

be considered by a foreigner as among the most remarkable features of English life. 
Among the upper and middle classes generally, the pleasures of the table are much, 
perhaps too much, cultivated ; dinner, in particular, being generally followed by an 
abundance of the wines of Portugal, Madeira, and Germany. The lower classes also 
live, in general, on substantial fare ; their favorite beverages are ale and porter ; 
while quoits, cricket, and ninepins, may be described as their most common amuse- 
ments. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PROGRESS OF POPULATION.— HEALTH AND LONGEVITY. 

The population of England in the time of the Plantagenet sovereigns is believed 
to have been little more than two millions. It has been estimated at 5,500,000 in 
1696. The progress during the greater part of the eighteenth century was slow; 
the amount in 1760 is supposed to have been about 6,500,000. In 1S01, for the first 
time, a regular census was taken ; and this has been repeated once in ten years ever 
since, giving the following results : — 

In 1801, there were 8,872,980 

In 1811, " 10,150,615 

In 1821, " 11,978,875 

In 1831, « 13,894,569 

In 1841, " nearly 16,000,000 

Being nearly a doubling since the beginning of the present century. The rapid ad- 
vance of the population is placed in a striking light, when we consider that, for the 
United Kingdom, it is nearly a thousand per day. Within the last ten years emigra- 
tion has been proceeding on a scale of unprecedented magnitude ; yet, even in the 
years during which it has been most active, it has not been sufficient to drain the 
country at one third of the rate at which its population has been increased by new 
births. This rapid increase of numbers clearly shows that, whatever partial evils 
there may be in the condition of the people, the country must, upon the whole, have 
enjoyed for forty years a high degree of prosperity ; for it is quite insupposable, that 
with stationary resources so many new mouths could have been fed, unless there had 
been, what certainly there has not been, a large and general deterioration in the style 
of living. It is to be remarked, however, that an immigration to a great extent from 
Ireland has been going on for about twenty years, and that generally the Irish set- 
tiers continue in England to live in a style little superior to that which they followed 
in their own country. 

The increased population has chiefly taken place in the manufacturing towns. It 
was calculated by Mr. M'Culloch, in 1831, that nearly a third of the people live in 
towns of above ten thousand inhabitants. Most of the large cities have experienced 
a rapid advance of population within the last twenty years. These circumstances 
serve to show that it is the development of the manufacturing, and not of the agri- 
cultural energies of the country, which has mainly tended to increase the population. 
In 1831, it was ascertained that the total number of persons above twenty years of 
age engaged in any kind of business or professional employment, was three millions 
three hundred and ninety-four thousand six hundred and ninety. Of these, one mill- 
ion seventy-five thousand nine hundred and twelve were engaged in agriculture; one 
million three hundred and twenty-seven thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven 
in trade and manufactures ; and nine hundred and ninety-one thousand and fifty-one 
in other pursuits. Of the last number, one hundred and eighty-five thousand one 
hundred and eighty-seven were capitalists, bankers, and professional and other edu- 
cated men. In this part of the acpount we' also find the army and navy and male 
servants. " It may thus be seen," says an intelligent writer, " how very small is the 



REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY.— NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 43 

number of persons arrived at maturity, who are not employed in some one or other 
of the occupations whereby the sum of the national wealth or convenience is ad- 
vanced." 

With regard to the rate of mortality in England, no certain conclusions were in 
the hands of the public till the commencement of a general registry of births, mar- 
riages, and deaths, in 1836-7. In the first year of the operation of this system, the 
burials were three hundred and thirty-five thousand nine hundred and fifty-six, which, 
if we suppose the population to have then been fifteen millions and one half, would 
give one in forty-six per annum as the rate of mortality for the whole country, being 
considerably more than previous imperfect calculations had made it. There are con- 
siderable local variations in the rate of mortality, in accordance with peculiar circum- 
stances. In the last half of the year 1837, the deaths out of three millions five hun- 
dred and fifty-three thousand one hundred and sixty-one persons, living in large cities, 
were forty-seven thousand nine hundred and fifty-three ; and out of three millions five 
hundred thousand seven hundred and fifty-one persons, living chiefly in rural situa- 
tions, only thirty-four thousand and seventy-four, or as nearly thirty-four to forty-seven. 
For this so much greater mortality in cities, we must look, first, to that custom which 
prevails of retiring in old age and sickness from country to town, and, secondly, to 
the filth, deficient ventilation, destitution, and vicious habits of life, which prevail in 
large towns. It is remarkable that London is healthier than most of the other large 
towns. The proportion who died at seventy out of one thousand persons was, in 
London, one hundred and four ; but in Birmingham it was eighty-one, in Leeds seven- 
ty-nine, and in Liverpool and Manchester only sixty-three. 

Out of one thousand deaths in the counties of Dorset, Devon, and Wilts, and in 
Wales, one hundred and eighty are of children under one year ; but in Leeds and its 
neighborhood, in the mining districts of Staffordshire and Shropshire, and in the 
fenny lowlands of Lincoln, Cambridge, and Huntingdonshire, the number was two 
hundred and seventy, giving token of a great local discrepancy in the sanitory condi- 
tion of the English population. After deducting the diseases of infancy, the most 
fatal maladies in England are consumption, fever, and dysentery. One eighth of the 
whole deaths, subject to the above deduction, are ascribed to the first of these diseases, 



CHAPTER V. 
REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY.— NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 

The natural scenery of England is generally of a pleasing, rather than a grand or 
picturesque character ; yet there are some portions of the country which are consid- 
ered attractive on account of their romantic beauty. We shall notice the chief of 
these. 

The southwest part of the county of Cumberland, and the northwest part of West- 
moreland, comprehend a range of lofty mountains — Skiddaw, Saddleback, Helvellyn, 
and some others of scarcely less note — amid which lie the lakes for which this dis- 
trict of England has long been celebrated. The largest of these are Ullswater, Win- 
dermere, Thirlmere, Derwentwater, and Bassenthwaite ; but some of less size, as 
Buttermere, Crummoclrwater, Loweswater, Leatheswater, Ennerdale, Wastwater, 
and Devock lake, are scarcely less admired. The vales or passes among the hills 
likewise contain much beautiful scenery of a wild character, although perhaps only 
traversed by a brawling mountain rill. 

The ascent of Skiddaw is long, but easy : a lady may ride to the top and down 
again without even dismounting. It is the fourth English mountain in height, being 
3,022 feet above the sea, and 2,800 above the lake of Bassenthwaite, which lies close 
at its foot. In respect of view, it is inferior to several points of smaller height, owing 
to its position nearly on the outside of the mountain district, and the absence of crags 
and precipices on the mountain itself. The gradual opening of the vale of Keswick 



41 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 







REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY.— NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 45 

as we ascend is, however, extremely beautiful ; and the view is finer three quarters 
up than on the summit. To the north and east a large tract of low moor extends, 
and the northern distance also is tame and level. The top of Skiddaw is formed by 
a ridge, which runs north and south about half a mile, with no great difference of 
elevation. The highest point visible from Keswick and Derwentwater is not the 
summit, but the southern end of this ridge. An English traveller has given the fol- 
lowing interesting description of a visit to this mountain : — 

" I once witnessed, with three companions, an atmospheric phenomenon on this 
mountain, rare in England, but not unfamiliar, it is said, on the Hartz mountains in 
Germany, where its occurrence is supposed to have given rise to the superstitious 
legends of the giant of the Brocken. We set out late in a fine August night to reach 
the top of Skiddaw before sunrise. There was no moon, but the stars shone bril- 
liantly; and as we rose up the steep hill-side overhanging Applethwaite, the lake 
and valley became slowly more and more distinct, in the cold, leaden hue of early 
twilight. As often happens after the finest nights, the floating vapors were suddenly 
condensed, and by the time we reached the table-land near the top, we were envel- 
oped in a thick white mist, cold and uncomfortable, which confined our sight to a 
circle of a few yards diameter. Suddenly the white fog took a beautiful rose color, 
produced probably, like the last hues of evening, by the greater refractive power of 
the red rays, as the first beams of the sun shot above the horizon. This very soon 
vanished. One of the party was a short distance in advance, when a ray of sunshine 
darted through the mist, and he saw a figure walking ten or fifteen yards distant from 
his side. Taking it for granted that this was one of his companions, whom he had 
supposed at some distance, he vented some expression of disappointment, and, receiv- 
ing no answer, repeated it again and again. Still there was no answer, though 
the figure kept steadily advancing with even steps. At last he stopped, half angry, 
and turned quite round to look at his silent companion, who did the same, but re- 
ceded as he approached ; and it became evident that the figure, apparently dimly 
seen through the mist, was his own shadow reflected on it. It was then surrounded 
by a bright halo, and as the light became stronger, grew less and less distinct. The 
rest of the party came up in time to witness this remarkable appearance with some 
modification. On reaching the ridge of the mountain, our figures, of superhuman 
size, appeared to be projected on the mist in the direction of the Solwa'y." 

The tract of moor which lies between SkiddaAV and Saddleback, bounded by High 
Pike and Carrock on the north, is called Skiddaw forest : it is traversed by the upper 
part of the Caldew river. In Bowscale Fell, as the northern part of the great mass 
of Saddleback is called, lies Bowscale Tarn, which sends a tributary to the Caldew. 
This tarn is the seat of a singular superstition, being supposed (or perhaps we 
should say, having been supposed) by the country people to be inhabited by two im- 
mortal fish. Mr. Wordsworth does not tell us in what fairy tale of transformation, 
or in what other way, the belief originated. Saddleback itself is a round-shouldered 
mountain of great extent, but no beauty of form, except as seen from the south, where 
the serrated precipices above Threlkeld rival those of Helvellyn. One of these is 
called Razor Edge, over which there is a magnificent view. Another noticeable 
point is the top of that wild ravine, doAvn which the great waterspout, many years 
ago, descended upon Threlkeld, sweeping away part of the village. It is still a 
strange scene of ruin ; and its effect is increased by a singular twist, caused by some 
convulsion, in the dip of the strata. The view down into Scales Tarn, deep-seated 
among crags, is awfully grand. In fact, Saddleback, though not ascended by one 
person for ten that go up Skiddaw, is better worth the ascent. 

The ascent of Helvellyn maybe conveniently performed from Patterdale. A lady, 
with a little management, taking the track up Glenridding to the lead mines, may 
ride witHn a quarter or half a mile of the summit ; immediately under which, at a 
depth of six hundred and fifty feet, lies Red Tarn, enclosed within the sweep of two 
sharp ridges, called Striding Edge and Swirrel Edge, which project from the mount- 
ain. The former is, in some parts, as sharp as the roof of a house. One of the paths 
from Patterdale leads along it ; but it requires some nerve and steadiness to traverse 
this giddy height, the top of which, in many places, is said scarcely to afford room 
to plant the foot. Swirrel Edge, the northern of the two, is crowned by the conical 
hill called Catchedicam. It was here that the remarkable instance of brute fidelity, 
which has been recorded both by Wordsworth and Scott, was shown in a dog, which 



46 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY.— NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 47 

during three months watched beside the corpse of his master, who had fallen and 
perished on a snowy spring day, in attempting to cross from Patterdale to Wythburn. 

" How nourished there for such long time, 
He knows, who gave that love sublime, 
And gave that strength of feeling, great 
Above all human estimate." 

The view from the summit of Helvellyn is, with the exception of that from Scaw- 
fell, the finest panoramic mountain view in England. 

The combination of Alpine wildnessand grandeur, with the soft scenery which re- 
poses in clothed slope and mirror-like lake at the bottoms of the hills, is what gives 
the Cumberland scenery its principal charm. Ullswater, which extends into West- 
moreland, is thought to possess the greatest beauty : it is about nine miles in length, 
but nowhere more than one in breadth. 

Windermere is a picturesque lake in Westmoreland (see engraving). The beau- 
tiful scenery which surrounds the placid waters of this lake has long been the theme 
of both poets and topographical writers. Wood, fell, and lake, are finely contrasted 
with ground more immediately devoted to the labors of the agriculturist. The disci- 
ples of " that quaint and cruel coxcomb," Isaac Walton, may here pursue their pis- 
catory labors with a certainty of success, as the lake abounds with the finest fish. In 
the summer season, the neighboring heights are frequently spotted with small tents 
belonging to parties of pleasure, who are constantly arriving from the metropolis ; 
and when the railroads now in progress are carried to their destination, thousands of 
persons will be enabled to enjoy the sylvan scenery of Cumberland and Westmore- 
land, to whom these delightful counties must otherwise have been completely un- 
known. 

Derwentwater is often termed Keswick lake, from its vicinity to the town of Kes- 
wick. This beautiful expanse of water is remarkable for the wildness and grandeur 
of the neighboring scenery (see engraving). It is nearly of an oval form, and the 
whole is seen at one glance, expanding within an amphitheatre of mountains broken 
into many fantastic shapes, peaked, splintered, impending, and sometimes pyramidal, 
opening by narrow valleys to the view of the rocks, which rise immediately beyond, 
and are again overlooked by others. The precipices seldom overhang the water, but 
are arranged at some distance, and the shores swell with woody eminences, or sink 
into green pastoral margins. Masses of wood also frequently appear among the 
cliffs, feathering them to their summits ; and a white cottage sometimes peeps from 
out their skirts, seated on the smooth knoll of a pasture projecting into the lake, and 
looking so extremely picturesque, as to seem placed there purposely to adorn it. The 
lake in return faithfully reflects the whole picture, and so even and brilliantly pellu- 
cid is its surface, that it rather heightens than obscures the coloring. It measures 
three miles in length by one and a half in breadth, and is only inferior to Ullswater. 
Mrs. Radcliffe, the eminent novelist, describes it as having peculiar charms, both 
from beauty and wildness. The bosom of the lake is spotted by several small, but 
well-wooded islands. , 




Leatheswater. 



Leatheswater is also a considerable and beautiful lake in the interior of Cumber- 
land (see engraving, above). This lake is situated in the interior of a very seques- 
tered district, bordering on Westmoreland. Its shores are naked and rocky, and 



48 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY.— NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 49 

.display a scene of desolation, which is much heightened by the appearance of im- 
mense craggy masses that seem to hang on the sides of Helvellyn, from whose steeps 
they have apparently been severed, but have been arrested in their tremendous prog- 
ress down its rugged sides, while others have reached the bottom, and are at rest in 
the silent lake. Near the middle, the lake is so contracted by its craggy boundaries, 
that a bridge of three arches has been thrown over it for the convenience of the neigh- 
boring inhabitants. Further on, the noise of waterfalls assail the ear on e^ery side, 
which are seen tumbling from amazing heights in silvery threads. The north end is 
terminated by a pyramidal and towering rock. 

Among the passes, that of Borrowdale is the most remarkable. It is a narrow 
chasm, opening from the centre of the amphitheatre which terminates the expanse 
of Derwentwater, and terminated by the vehement little stream of the same name. 
Near the entrance of the pass is a detached mountain, called Castle-Crag, with a 
peaceful village reposing at its foot ; and opposite to Castle-Crag is the Boivder stone, 
a huge mass of rock, which has apparently fallen from the neighboring cliffs, and 
round whose base the road is made to wind. It is computed that this enormous 
boulder is not less than eighteen hundred tons in weight. 

Cumberland is remarkable for possessing some of the finest cataracts and water- 
falls in England ; and to afford our readers some idea of the beauty of these, we give, 
in the beautiful cut accompanying this description, a picturesque sketch of Colruth 
falls, one of the most remarkable of them. 




Colruth Falls. 

> The lake scenery of Cumberland has by its beauty attracted a great number of per- 
manent residents, whose villas enter pleasingly into its landscapes, and among whom 
the present age has seen several eminent literary men — Southey, Wordsworth, &c. 
It also attracts an immense number of tourists from all parts of the kingdom. 

The district usually called " The Lakes" may be said also to comprehend a small 
northern and nearly detached portion of Lancashire, where Windermere and Conis 
ton-Water are sheets rivalling in extent and beauty those of Cumberland. 

No county in England possesses a greater variety of scenery than Derbyshire, 01 
presents more striking geographical contrasts, than its northern and southern portions. 
The latter is a beautiful fertile district, in no way distinguished from other midland 
counties, but the northern part abounds with hill and dale, and the scenery is always 
romantic and frequently even sublime. A chain of hills arises, which extends to the 
borders of Scotland. These hills are at first of small elevation, but being in their 
progress piled on one another, they form very elevated ground in the tract called 

4 



50 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

" the High Peak." The mountains of the peak, although inferior to those oi Cum- 
berland, constitute the loftiest and most considerable range in the midland regions of 
the kingdom. The highest points are Axe-edge, which is 2,100 feet above the level 
of Derby, and Kinder-scout, which is 1,000 feet higher than the level of Buxton. 
About 700 eminences and fifty rocky caverns, dells, and valleys, have been enumerated 
in the region of the peak; the most celebrated is the "Peak Cavern," sometimes 
called " Devil's cave," and more frequently " Auld Horney." 

This is situated in Castleton dale ; the dale is six miles long and nearly two miles 
broad, and is calculated to be one thousand feet below the level of the surrounding 
country. It has been much celebrated, not because it is in that respect superior to 
many other valleys in Derbyshire, but from the lovely contrasts it presents to the ster- 
il, bleak, and desolate mountain tracts which surround it. The cavern itself is one 
of the most magnificent and extraordinary works of nature. It is almost impossible 
to conceive a scene more romantically beautiful, than the entrance to this cave. On 
each side, the huge gray rocks rise almost perpendicularly to the height of nearly 
three hundred feet, having on the left the rivulet which issues from the cavern, and 
foams along over crags and broken limestone. The mouth of the cave is formed by 
a vas'i canopy of rock, which assumes the form of a depressed arch, nearly regular 
in its structure, and which extends in width one hundred 'and twenty feet, is forty- 
two feet in height, and above ninety feet in receding depth. This gloomy recess is 
inhabited by some poor people, who subsist by making packthread, and by selling 
candles, and officiating as guides to visiters. Their rude huts and twine-making ma- 
chines produce a singular effect, in combination with the natural features of the 
scene. After penetrating about thirty yards into this recess, ihe roof becomes lower, 
and a gentle descent conducts by a detached rock to the immediate entrance to the 
interior, which is closed by a door kept locked by the guides. At this point the light 
of day, which had gradually softened into the obscurity of twilight, totally disap- 
pears, and torches are employed to illuminate the further progress through the dark- 
ness of the cavern. The passage then becomes low and confined, and the visiter is 
obliged to proceed twenty or thirty yards in a stooping posture, when he comes to 
another spacious opening, whence a path conducts to the margin of a small lake, 
called " First water;" this lake is about fourteen yards long, and in depth three or 
four feet: upon it is a small boat filled with straw, on which the visiter lies, and is 
thus conveyed into the interior of the cavern under a massive arch of rock, which 
is about five yards through, and in one place descends to within eighteen or twenty 
inches of the water. Beyond the lake a spacious vacuity of two hundred and twenty 
feet in length, two hundred feet broad, and in some parts one hundred and twenty 
high, opens in the bosom of the rocks; but the absence of light precludes the spec- 
tator from seeing either the sides or the roof of this great cavern. 

It is traversed by a path consisting of steps cut m the sand, conducting from the 
first to the " Second water." Through this, visiters are generally conveyed upon the 
backs of the guides. Near the termination of this passage, before arriving at the 
water, there is a projecting pile of rocks, popularly called "Roger Rain's house," from 
the incessant fall of water through the crevices in the rocks. A little beyond this 
spot is the entrance of another hollow, called the "Chancel." At this point the rocks 
appear broken and dislocated, and the sides and prominent parts of the cavity are in- 
crusted with large masses of stalactite. In the " Chancel," the stranger is much sur- 
prised and impressed by hearing the death-like stillness of the place suddenly inter- 
rupted by a burst of vocal music, from the upper regions of the cavern. The tones 
are wild and discordant, but, heard in such a place, and under such circumstances, 
produce a powerful impression. At the conclusion of the performance, the singers 
display their torches, and eight or ten women and children — the inhabitants of the 
huts at the entrance — appear ranged on a hollow of the rock, about fifty or sixty feet 
'roni the ground. From the " Chancel" the path leads onward to the " Devil's Cellar," 
and thence a gradual and somewhat rapid ascent of about one hundred and fifty feet 
conducts to a spot called the " Halfway House." Further on, the way proceeds be- 
tween three natural arches, to another vast cavity, which is denominated "Great 
Tom of Lincoln," from its resemblance to the form of a belli A very pleasing ef- 
fect is produced, when this place is illuminated by a strong liffht. The arrangement 
of the rocks, the spiracles of the roof, and the flowing stream, unite to form a scene 
of no common interest : the distance from this spot to the termination of the entire 
hollow is not considerable. The vault gradually descends, the passage contracts, 



REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY.— NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 51 




52 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

and at last nearly closes, leaving only sufficient room for the passage of the water, 
which appears to have a communication with the distant mines of the Peak forest. 
The entire length of this wonderful cavern is seven hundred and fifty yards, and its 
depth two hundred and seven yards. It is wholly formed of limestone strata, which 
abound in marine exuviae, and occasionally exhibit an intermixture of chert. Some 
communications with other fissures open from different parts of the cavern, but 
none of them are comparable to it in extent and appearance. In general, the access 
to the cavern is easy, but in very wet weather it can not be explored, as it is then 
nearly filled with water, which rises to a considerable height even at the entrance. 
In the inner part of the cavern a singular effect is produced by the explosion of a 
small quantity of gunpowder, when inserted in a crevice of the rock. The report 
seems to roll along the roof and sides, like a heavy and continuous peal of thunder. 

The scenery adjacent to the neighboring town of Buxton is also much celebrated. 
One of the most noted objects is " Elden's Hole," a perpendicular opening, down 
which a line has been dropped to the extent of two thousand six hundred and fifty- 
two feet, without finding the bottom. " Poole's Hole" is a cave remarkable for its 
stalactites. A succession of beautiful valleys, situated amid rugged mountains, leads 
to the romantic one of " Matlock," where the banks of the Derwent are bordered by 
extensive woods, interspersed with the boldest and most varied forms of rock. 

Of the varied scenery for which Derbyshire is so much celebrated, its numerous 
dales form the most beautiful and interesting portion. The first of the number, in 
size as well as beauty, is the far-famed and romantic Dove-dale, so called from the 
river Dove, which pours its waters through it. On entering this enchanting spot, the 
sudden change of scenery, from that of the surrounding country, is powerfully striking. 
The brown heath, or richly-cultivated meadow, is exchanged for rocks abrupt and 
vast, which rise on each side, their gray sides harmonized by mosses, lichens, and 
yew-trees, and their tops sprinkled with mountain-ash. The hills that enclose this 
narrow dell are very precipitous, and bear on their sides fragments of rock that, in 
the distance, look like the remains of ruined castles. After proceeding a little way, 
a deep and narrow valley appears, into the recesses of which the eye is prevented 
from penetrating, by the winding course it pursues, and by the shutting in of its 
precipices, which fold into each other and preclude all distant view. A further prog- 
ress exhibits an increase of majesty and rudeness in the scene. The objects which, 
at a distance, appeared to have been ruins, are found to be rude pyramids of rock, 
and grand isolated masses, ornamented with ivy, rising in the middle of the vale. 
The rocks which enclose the dale, forcing their scattered and uncovered heads into 
the clouds, overhang the narrow path that winds through its dark recesses, and, 
frowning in craggy grandeur, and shaggy with the dark foliage that grows out of the 
chinks and clings to the asperities of the rocks, form a scene unrivalled in romantic 
offect. The mountain, which rises in the background of the view given on page 53, 
is known by the name of Thorp Cloud. On proceeding about a mile into the vale, 
fantastic forms and uncouth combinations are exhibited, in vast detached mural 
masses, while the sides of the dell are perforated by many small natural caverns 
which are difficult of access. 

The length of Dove-dale is nearly three miles, and it is in no part more than a 
quarter of a mile wide, while in some places it almost closes, scarcely leaving room 
for the passage of its narrow river. On the right, or Derbyshire side of the dale, the 
rocks are more bare of vegetation than on the opposite, or Staffordshire side, where 
they are thickly covered with a fine hanging wood of various trees and odoriferous 
shrubs and plants. The frequent changes in the motion and appearance of the trans- 
parent Dove, which is interspersed with small islands and little waterfalls, contribute 
to diversify the scenery of this charming spot ; while the rugged, dissimilar, and fre- 
quently grotesque and fanciful appearance of the rocks, gives to it that peculiar char- 
acter by which it is distinguished from every other in the kingdom. The view on 
page 55 is of a very remarkable scene of this description, and can not fail to be im- 
mediately recognised by every one who has had the pleasure of visiting the spot. 

The Dove has long been famous among anglers. Old Izaak Walton, his disciple 
Cotton, and Sir Humphrey Davy, have all celebrated it, not only for the sport it af- 
forded them, but for its natural charms. 

We can not dismiss a notice of this very interesting spot, without mentioning a 
peculiarly graceful custom which still lingers in its neighborhood — one of those 
poetical usages of the olden time which have almost departed from the country, and 



REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY.— NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 53 




54 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES 

the loss of which we would regret, did we not consider it a necessary result of tna 
risen standard in the every-day enjoyments of the people, which, by affording many 
objects to interest the mind that did not formerly exist, and by diminishing the dis- 
tance between the pleasures of ordinary and festival days, weakens the stimulus to 
their observance. The custom which gave occasion to this remark is thus described 
by Rhodes in his " Peak Scenery" : — 

"An ancient custom still prevails in the village of Tissington, to which, indeed, it 
appears to be confined, for I have not met with anything of a similar description in 
any other part of Derbyshire. It is denominated " Well-flowering," and holy Thurs- 
day is devoted to the rites and ceremonies of this elegant custom. This day is re- 
garded as a festival, and all the wells in the place, five in number, are decorated with 
wreaths and garlands of newly-gathered flowers, disposed in various devices. Some- 
times boards are used, which are cut for the figure intended to be represented, and 
covered with moist clay, into which the stems of the flowers are inserted to preserve 
their freshness ; and they are so arranged as to form a beautiful mosaic Avork, often 
tasteful in design, and vivid in coloring. The boards thus adorned are so placed in 
the spring that the water appears to issue from among beds of flowers. On this oc- 
casion the villagers put on their best attire, and open their houses to their friends. 
There is a service at the church, where a sermon is preached ; afterward a proces- 
sion takes place, and the Avells are visited in succession ; the psalms for the day, the 
epistle, and the gospel, are read, one at each well, and the whole concludes with a 
hymn, which is sung by the church singers, accompanied by a band of music. After 
this the people separate, and the remainder of the day is spent in rural sports and 
holiday pastimes." 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 

It has been said in praise of the island of Great Britain, that it contains within 
itself, on a small scale, specimens of all the beauties and variety of scenery of the 
whole of Europe. In a similar manner we may almost say that the Isle of Wight 
contains within a narrow compass all the most pleasing and picturesque features of 
Great Britain. No person with any eye or feeling for the beauties of nature, ever 
visited this fair isle without delight; and we trust we shall render no unacceptable 
service by drawing our readers' attention to it. 

Though the largest island in the British channel, the Isle of Wight is only twenty- 
four miles in its greatest length, that is, from east to west, or from the Needles to 
Foreland farm, and about twelve in its greatest breadth, or from Cowes castle to 
Rocken End. Its form is that of an irregular ellipsis, and it has been compared to 
the shape of a turbot. It contracts at its two extremities, and is very narrow toward 
the west. The entire circumference is generally set down at about sixty miles, and 
the island contains from 120,000 to 130,000 acres of land, of which a great portion 
is very productive. 

The natural division of the island is very clearly marked ; a centrical chain of 
hills and downs cuts it into two nearly equal parts, the one being north and the 
other south. The southern part, which is farther from the Hampshire coast, and 
much the more picturesque, bold, and secluded of the two, is commonly called the 
" back of the island." 

A very favorable character 'has been generally given of the islanders. M. Simond, 
in the course of his tour at the back of the island, says : " The meanest of their cot- 
tages, and those inhabited by the poorer class, were adorned with roses, jessamines, 
and honeysuckles, and often large myrtles, which, on this southern coast, bear the 
winter out of doors. There were vines everywhere against their houses, and often 
fig-trees. We thought the women remarkably good-looking. Children and grown 
oeople took off their hats, or gave us a nod, as we passed along." 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



56 




56 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

The most striking and distinctive features of the Isle of Wight exist on its coasts, 
which present a continual succession of natural phenomena, and grand or beautiful 
scenery. We will attempt to describe a few of the scenes to be met with in its 
brief circumnavigation. 

We will begin with the picturesque maritime town of Cowes, where we landed 
when we visited the island, and thence proceed along the western coasts to the Needles 
and the back of the island. This pretty town, surrounded by gentlemen's seats and 
elegant cottages, is situated at the mouth of the Medina, standing partly on the 
eastern and partly on the western bank of that river. A port and roadstead, gener- 
ally crowded with shipping, offV animated seaward views ; and on the land side 
there is a variety of beautiful walks through an undulating country, where trees are 
everywhere mixed with the habitations of men. Old Cowes castle is a small for- 
tress on the seashore, offering no very picturesque features, but East Cowes castle, 
and Norris castle, in the neighborhood, though both modern Gothic structures, are 
fine objects in the scenery, and beautifully situated. 

On leaving West Cowes, we sailed under the pleasant West cliff, and doubling a 
little promontory, came into Gurnard's bay, where a small stream, called the Rue, 
falls into the Solent channel. Thence, crossing Thorness bay, Ave reached New- 
town, which is curiously situated on a deep and irregular inlet or creek of the 
Solent, which admits vessels of considerable burden. Though formerly a market- 
town of some consequence, and though, until very recently, it sent two members to 
parliament, Newtown is but a small village, with fourteen or fifteen cottages, and a 
population of about seventy persons. The only trade it now has, is derived from 
some salterns, or saltpans. In the rear of the village are the picturesque remains 
of an old church, which are almost entirely concealed by luxuriant ivy. From New- 
town bay we sailed slowly along the coast to the estuary of the river Yar, on the 
eastern bank of which stands the town of Yarmouth. During this short voyage 
from Cowes, the tourist catches fine glimpses of the interior scenery of the island, 
backed by hills and downs ; but the coast itself, though prettily sprinkled with small 
hamlets and fishermen's huts, and covered in many places with green grass, or trees, 
to the water's edge, yet offers none of those features of sublimity which occur a little 
beyond Yarmouth. This town, the most important on the western end of the island, 
is very advantageously situated, and has a constant intercourse, by means of steam- 
boats and sailing-vessels, with Lymington on the main, from which it is distant no 
more than four miles: its port or roadstead is excellent. The population of Yar- 
mouth, however, is but small, not much exceeding 600 persons. The river Yar, 
which has a fine appearance at high water, rises close to Freshwater gate, on the 
opposite side of the island, and within a few yards of the sea, which, in stormy 
weather, has been seen to break over the narrow ridge of separation, and mingle its 
salt waves with the fresh waters of the river-head. The Yar almost insulates the 
western extremity of the island from the rest of the Wight ; and, were it desirable, 
the ocean could be easily made to flow through its bed, from the south to the Solvent 
strait at the north. To this end, nothing would be required but to cut through the 
very narrow isthmus at Freshwater gate. The river Yar is navigable up to Fresh- 
water mills, and affords a pleasant aquatic excursion. 

On leaving Yarmouth, we almost immediately reached Sconce Point, where Hurst 
castle, standing at the end of a projection from the Hampshire coast, presents itself 
m a picturesque manner, and apparently almost within reach. At the turning of 
Sconce Point into Colwell bay, the peculiarities of the coast begin to appear. The 
cliffs become lofty and vertical, exposing their different strata, the lowest of which is 
of white sand, and more than thirty feet thick. This continues along Totland bay 
to the grand eminence of Headon hill, which rises 400 feet above the level of the 
sea, which is here remarkably clear, with a fine rocky bottom. On turning this 
point, the voyager finds himself in a remarkable bay, at the southern side of which 
the Needles show their fantastic shapes, their rugged, narrow ridges, in summer- 
time, being generally covered with sea-fowl. 

Alum bay, a section of which is correctly represented in our engraving, presents, 
indeed, one of the most striking scenes on this curious coast. On one side it is 
bounded by lofty precipices of chalk*, of a pearly color, broken and indented ; on the 
other by cliffs, strangely but beautifully variegated with different colors, arising 
from the strata of red and yellow ochres, fuller's earth, black flints, and sands, both 
gray and snowy white. The white sand is valuable for the manufacture of glass 



THE ISLE OF "WIGHT. 



6? 




58 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

and chinaware, and is exported in considerable quantities. Of the colored sands, 
which are uncommonly bright and pretty, the people of the island make little chim- 
neypiece ornaments, by putting them into vials, and so arranging and contrasting 
the different tints as to form fantastic designs. Alum and copperas-stones are also 
picked up on the shores of the bay, and exported in small quantities. 

As the tourist changes his position in Alum bay, the Needle rocks, which are five 
in number, though only three of them now stand boldly out of the water, vary then 
irregular forms to the eye in a most singular manner. From some points they ap- 
pear as if united in one broad, rugged mass; from others they are seen detached, 
and looking like ohi fortresses which had battered each other to pieces, or fallen into 
one common ruin, under the weight of time and the violence of tempests. It would 
require the pencil instead of the pen, and many successive views, to give a notion 
of the variety of these combinations ; but the natural causes which have produced 
these phenomena, admit of an easy and brief explanation. 

A very sharp point of land forms the western end of the Isle of Wight. This 
has been broken by the sea, and divided into several large columnar rocks, that now 
seem to have risen out of the waters. These rocks, which are famous under the 
name of " The Needles," stand on a line with the extremity of the island, of which 
they were formerly a part. They are white, with a black base, and curiously 
streaked with black dots, from the alternate strata of flints. A traveller has re- 
marked, that, at a distance, they look more like thimbles than needles. The only 
one of them to which the name of needle was at all applicable, was of a cylindrical 
shape, thin, and above 100 feet high, measuring from low-water mark ; and this one 
fell down and almost entirely disappeared, about sixty years ago, its base having 
been worn through by the continual action of the waves and tides. Seamen used 
to call it the " pillar of Lot's wife." It was the farthest from the island ; its base, 
consisting mostly of flint, is still visible, and in stormy weather it forms a dangerous 
reef. From the chalky nature of this remarkable group of rocks, and of the coast 
of the island from which they have been detached, continual changes are taking 
place in their form and disposition. In some places the sea has eaten them through, 
and formed large and irregular archways ; in others it has so washed away their 
sides that they look rather like walls than solid rocks ; while deep caverns have 
been formed in the chalky cliffs of the island, which fall in from time to time, and 
gradually diminish the island in that direction. At no distant period, the present 
Needles or rocks will have wholly disappeared ; but new ones will be formed out of 
the western end or projecting point qf the Isle of Wight, which, already extremely 
narrow, will be insulated like the Needles, when the sea, at work on both sides, 
shall have quite broken through the thin partition. While standing on this perilous 
part of the island, in 1811, M. Simond says: "We observed, with some terror, a 
long crack along the margin of the cliff, cutting off a slice of the downs (sheep 
were quietly feeding upon it) of full one acre. This slice has settled down already 
two or three feet, and must soon fall. The next heavy rain, or frost, or high wind, 
may detach it, and down it slips, 660 feet perpendicular! We had landed yester- 
day on the flinty beach precisely under this cliff, twice as high as those of Dover, 
and more exposed to an open sea." 

The Needles lighthouse is built on the highest point of this western part of the 
island, at an elevation of 715 feet above the level of the sea. The building is a low, 
truncated cone, but its light shines afar like a brilliant star, being distinctly seen at 
sea at the distance of eleven leagues. It is cited as a proof of the healthiness of 
this airy height, that an old couple who lived in the lighthouse, and sat up by turns 
all night to attend to the lamps, were never, during the long term of nineteen years, 
hindered by sickness from attending to their duties a single night. It is observed 
that at the Needles the tide rises only eight feet, and at the whole back part of the 
island no more than nine, while at Cowes, on the other side, it rises fifteen feet. 

On turning the Needles and the most westerly point of the Isle of Wight, into 
Scratchell's bay, the rough sublimity of the cliffs continues, and there commences a 
series of caves that end at Freshwater gate. An indentation, much smaller than 
Alum bay, immediately adjacent to this terminating promontory on the south side, is 
known by the name of Scratchell's bay. It is represented in our engraving to the 
right, as seen, along with the other objects to the west of it, from the front of 
the cave, the magnificent arch of which, one hundred and fifty feet in height, forms 
the foreground of the picture. This is one of numerous caves which pierce the 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



5& 




60 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

Freshwater cliffs, and vary the extraordinary aspect of that vast wall of whiteness 
marked with parallel inclined lines of black, " only to be compared," to use the words 
of Sir Henry Englefield, " to a ruled sheet of paper." In many parts these cliffs are 
four hundred feet in height — at one place, called Main beach, their elevation is not 
less than six hundred feet. Here, however, the precipice is not quite perpendicular. 
The singular-looking rocks that are seen rising out of the water beyond the promon- 
tory are the celebrated Needles, a name, however, which they seem to have derived 
chiefly from one of their number, much taller than any of those now remaining, 
which has long disappeared. It fell suddenly, in the year 1764. Sir Richard 
Worseley, in his " History of the Isle of Wight," states that it was about 120 feet 
in height above low-water mark, and much more like a needle in shape than any of 
those that now remain. 

Scratchell's bay, and all the neighboring cliffs, are frequented by vast swarms of 
sea-fowls, which the country people are in the habit of catching by the hazardous 
method, practised also in the Shetland and the Feroe islands, of being swung over 
the brow of the rock by a rope made fast in the earth above. Worseley enumerates 
puffins, razorbills, willocks, gulls, cormorants, Cornish choughs, daws, starlings, and 
wild pigeons, as among the species that frequent the rocks, and lodge in the shel- 
ving strata. Some remain constantly here ; others come only to lay their eggs. 
" They sit," says the writer just quoted, " in thick rows, and discover themselves by 
their motions, though not individually visible." From these retreats they are driven 
or frightened away by the stick of the adventurous bird-catcher. 

"At the report of a gun," says a tourist, " they scream, fly out, and almost darken 
the sky with their countless wings. At times flights of these birds skim the air in end- 
less circles, and wheel round the head of the tourist on wings that seem without mo- 
tion, and with a cry like a horse-laugh. One or two species remain all the year round, 
but most of them are migratory, coming in May, when they lay their eggs in the 
rocks, and taking their departure about the middle of August, after which they are 
seen no more till the next breeding season. During their stay they are not left un- 
disturbed in their seemingly inaccessible retreats. Unable to get at them from be 
low by climbing, the islanders reach them from above by descending the perpendicu- 
lar cliffs in the same perilous manner as is practised by the Norwegians and the 
hardy natives of the Feroe island. They drive a large stake or iron bar into the top 
of the cliff; to this stake or bar they fasten a strong rope, at the other end of which 
there is a stick put crosswise for the adventurer to sit upon, or support himself by ; 
and with this simple apparatus he lets himself down the front of the horrid preci- 
pice. If his object is to secure eggs, he halloos as he descends, to scare the birds 
away ; but when he wishes to obtain feathers and the birds themselves, he goes to 
work in silence, and either catches them in their nests, or knocks them down with a 
stick as they fly out of their holes. The soft feathers of the birds are of value, and 
find a ready market with the upholsterers ; their flesh, which is rank and fishy, is 
bought by the fishermen, who cut it up and use it for their crab-pots and other baits. 
Some of the eggs are said to be very good eating." Worseley says that in his time a 
dozen birds generally yielded one pound weight of soft feathers, which were sold for 
eightpence sterling the pound. 

Here, too, grows samphire, in fine green tufts ; and those who gather it, " precious 
trade." are let down by a rope from above, in the same manner as the fowlers. The 
pebbles below, over which the sea rolls, are black and shiny, being mainly flints 
loosened or dissolved from their beds in the chalk, and broken and polished by the 
friction of ages, produced by the never-resting tides and waves. The water at the 
foot of the cliffs is so clear, that one can see, many fathoms deep, to the bottom of it. 

Scratchell's bay is often visited by tourists. The most magnificent view down into 
it, Sir Henry Englefield says, is obtained by descending a very steep grassy slope, to the 
edge of one of the cliffs in the neighborhood, and from this point the whole Needles 
may be seen ; but he advises strangers not to attempt to find their way down without 
taking a guide along with them. In his work entitled, "A Description of the Isle 
of Wight" (London, 1816), Sir Henry has given various views of the scenery in the 
neighborhood of this spot. " Nothing can be more interesting," he remarks, " par- 
ticularly to those who take pleasure in aquatic excursions, than to sail between and 
round the Needles. The wonderfully-covered cliffs of Alum bay, the lofty and tow- 
ering chalk precipices of Scratchell's bay, of the most dazzling whiteness and the 
most elegant forms, the magnitude and singularity of the spiry, insulated masses, 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



61 




Q2 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

which seem at every instant to be shifting their situations, and give a mazy perplex- 
ity to the place, the screaming noise of the aquatic birds, the agitation of the sea, and 
the rapidity of the tide, occasioning not unfrequently a slight degree of danger, all 
these circumstances combine to raise in the mind unusual emotions, and to give to 
the scene a character highly singular, and even romantic." 

We go now to the back of the island. Rowing under Freshwater cliffs, the tour- 
ist may visit Neptune's caves, the larger of which is two hundred feet deep — the bay 
of Watcomb, where the scenery is as bold and almost as curious as at Alum bay — 
and then Freshwater cave, which is about one hundred and twenty feet in depth, 
and taken altogether, the most romantic of these caverns. A rude fantastic arch, 
about thirty feet high, and of the same width, and two lateral arches of smaller di- 
mension, separated from each other by a thin rocky column, give admittance to this 
wild and deep recess. Looking seaward, from the interior of the cave, the view is 
at once curious and beautiful. Through the main arch a glorious expanse of ocean 
presents itself; and looking through the side arches, which are of an arrow-head 
shape at top, you see part of the rocky coast of the Wight as through the Gothic 
windows of a cathedral. 

A little farther on, a detached arched rock stands boldly out into Freshwater bay, 
its rough edges generally crowded with screaming wild sea-fowl. It is now nearly 
six hundred feet from the cliffs of the island, of Which it once formed a solid part. 
In the centre of this bay is a creek, called Freshwater gate, with a huge columnar 
rock rising out of the sea immediately before its mouth. It is just behind this creek 
that the Yar rises, which river running due north, right across this end of the island, 
falls into the Solent strait at Yarmouth. Near to this point isCompton bay, where 
there is a delightful walk on a broad margin of silvery sand. Passing the pretty 
village of Brook, and a curious group of small rocks, called the Bull rocks, which 
are frequently dangerous to seamen, we shoot into Brixton bay. Here the cliffs be- 
come much lower, and are cut and rent toward the sea in an extraordinary manner. 
These chasms, which, in the language of the islanders, are called chines, form one of 
the most characteristic features of the coast. A chine is a place where the ridge of 
the cliffs is cut through by the action of water running seaward from the interior of the 
island, or by other means, and where a ravine is formed opening to the shore. Ev- 
ery one of the chines has a stream of water running through it. In Brixton bay 
there are above a dozen of them ; but they are inferior in magnitude and picturesque 
beauty to some we are fast approaching. Among them, however, Comptou chine 
and Brooke chine are worth visiting. 

After leaving Brixton bay and passing Atherfield point, and another group of 
rocks that lies off it, the voyager will find himself in Chale bay, where freestone 
cliffs and of a tremendous height, impend over the shore. Whether seen by sea or 
land, the views here are sublime. On St. Catherine's hill, the most elevated point 
of the whole island, " there is a stern round tower of other days," which has a happy 
effect in the landscape, and is not uninteresting in its history. It was built in the 
year 1323, by Walter, then lord of the neighboring manor of Godyton, who assigned 
certain rents to a chanting priest to sing mass in it, and also to provide light in the 
tower (which was at once a chapel, a hermitage, and a pharos), for the safety of 
seamen in dark and stormy weather. At the reformation, the trifling revenues were 
sequestrated or alienated — the poor monk ceased his mass, and the lights to shine 
across the deep, where rocks and shoals threatened destruction to the " night-faring 
skiff." On the latter point, however, one's regret may be the less, as it is asserted 
that, owing to its great elevation, the pharos is so frequently surrounded by mists as to 
render the best of modern lights of no avail there, when they are most wanted. By 
day, and in fine weather, however, the old tower still renders good service, being an 
excellent landmark. Mr. Pennant informs us, that it was thought of such impor- 
tance in his time, that it was thoroughly and solidly repaired, and that, in clearing 
away the rubbish that had fallen in, the workmen discovered the form of the little 
chapel, and the floor of the little cell in which the pious priest used to sleep. This 
tower stands more than eight hundred feet above high-water mark, and commands 
a most extensive view, embracing the whole of the island, except one corner, the 
Hampshire coast, the New forest, Southampton water, Portsdown hills, the downs of 
Sussex, Beechy head, the isles of Portland and Purbeck, and (on a very fine day) 
part of the French coast near Cherbourg. 

Chale bay, which is about three miles in extent, is considered very dangerous in 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



03 




64 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES 

stormy weather : the shore Imj^Jj J£»J «£S 3^*55 

On the coast of the Wight, at the foot of ^owwing em ;< ^ chine/ , 

bay, occurs one of the finest of the ^ ?^f ITform the most southern point 
This gloomy fissure penetrates far into 1 foe f ^ s ^*™^ h n0 doubt has largely 
of the Isle of Wight. At the «PP« P« l °f, ^fiSfrn of the chasm, falls over a 
contributed to the disruption of the soil and the ^rmzuo^ seasons? after i ong and 
ledge of rocks that is nearly ei ghty *« ^ fine summe rs the scanty stream is 
heavy rains, this is no mean cataract, but dorm n Qf thg ce . 

retained behind the rocky ledge or merely trickles °™ ^ 

Without this adjunct .however, the chine s ^^ ^Velundred feet high. These 
In some places the cliffs on either side o it enra J scarcely a trace 

rocks are of the wildest forms, and in color almost black. m 

rf vegetation. The whole scene reminds oneo a ^ m the A p ^ > lack _ Gang 
of some of the lava recesses in the A^ksof M ™*l*n a lands lides that occur 

chine, and in that very ravine, are some ^rn^^p^ 

so often on these coasts, and ^J^ 1 '^ ^ | J Catherine's point, we find our- 
Continuing our circumnavigation and doub » n & D ^ d h Un dercliff, where the 
selves close to that remarkable part of the ^jailed ^ Here 

effects of great and remote land ^ f J ^^^^^ a mile in breadth, seems to 

a strip of about six miles long, and irom a quarterw i kg oyer . 

have settled down and slipped toward the ^ «fcbn ng ajum^ f 

turned and broken-mounds of earth-deep ^ ow ^ The ^ that 

ing falls of water, collecting into P^^^^dred feet in height, and upon 
immediately face the sea vary from , xty to one hundred ^ ^ & 

these runs the long irregular ^0^^^^ ^^ f t hlgher . 

bold abrupt steep-a wall of rock "^ lro ™ x beds f sandstone ; being pre- 

These upper or land cliffs are composed of honzonta d ^ .^ 

cisely the same material as is seen on the 'broken ro cominuatio n of the high 

evident that the sunken tract or under cliff was *o rmer iy §< . g evidently of 

fecundity." TTn,wliff has been formed rather by a succession of 

It should appear that the U . ndercl tt J** ° These changes are still occurring, 
landslides, than by one grand ^° r sub ^ S^s of his, the southeastern, side of 
on a larger or smaller scale, at the two «tremitie 

the island. In the year ^^'^/f^Vslidin- toward the sea, the surface breaking 

acres') was of a sudden seen sinking and sliding towaru i ' in> This was at 

urto s mnge shapes, and yawn ng chasms closing and g£"&g£8£» a sKp of coun . 

the western end of the Undercliff near Nito n an da lew j , f & ^ 

try, about a mile to the south °J*at village, to a ™ * * ins of a house that had 

had been overturned by a dreadfu e "^^ ^ \ f these landslides happened in 

been partly swallowed up were still seen. Anotner oi district, close to 

fhe w'ate/of 1810-'ll, at the ^^.^S^J^lfter this subsidence, 

Bonchurch. M. Simond, who was on the island a lew m 

says that it extended over forty or fatty _ ac res. nd tQ f 

I The rents here are frightful, and the rocks are in .0 j ^ yeg 

ment s by their friction against each other. 1 he o W ^ bslhute d. We 

seems to have been swallowed up, an d new oil, white } situaUon as . 

have seen the roots of trees actual y stand ™SJ^*™ in which two human feet 
suredly, which put us in mind of that picture 01 tne aei & 
only appear on the surface of the waters • h h ut anot h e r little promontory into 

In 1818 there was another landslide, which tnrew o occurring from 

the sea. We believe.there are no records o ^y \o s of huma^ ^ 

SS?=!^ ^ ries being - " oh ! " ,e a11 farm 

and strong hereabout." ' , , •.„ ; n a singular manner, the 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



65 




66 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

middle parts of England, with a bold shore, and an unbounded sea, continually trav- 
ersed by ships. 

The trees that have been planted thrive in a wonderful manner, and with the lux- 
uriant myrtle-bushes form on every side the most delightful shades, from which cot- 
tages, villas, churches, and villages, peep forth with beautiful effect. This is indeed 
a favored nook — an epitome of the regions of the fair south, protected and sheltered 
by a felicitous arrangement of nature in the regions of the north. It is not less 
healthy than it is lovely and picturesque. And in this little strip of mild climate and 
dry soil, snow is rarely seen, and frosts are only partially felt. The myrtle, the gera- 
nium, and many other foreign plants, flourish luxurirntly in the open air all through 
the year. In the winter months, the mean temperature of the atmosphere at eight 
o'clock in the morning is about forty-five degrees. But it is time to leave this " hap- 
py valley," where we have tarried long. 

Continuing our excursion by sea, and keeping under the cliff", we soon come to 
Steephill cove, an exceedingly pretty-spot, but which, however, yields the palm of 
beauty and picturesqueness to Ventnor cove (see engraving), about a mile farther on, 
and near the eastern extremity of the Undercliff. Here the upland downs, the very 
edges of which are seen fringed with sheep and cattle, stand out in bold eminence ; 
there is a cliff and a little stream that tumbles from it, after working a mill ; lower 
down, on some shelving rocks, there is a group of fishermen's cottages, disposed as 
if a painter had had the arranging of them — nets drying in the sun, baskets, oars, 
sails, " scattered all about," make up one of those marine pictures which can hardly 
be seen without delight ; and finally, in front of these thatched cottages, there is a 
wide and beautiful beach, and then a far-spreading transparent sea. 

Soon after turning the extremity of the Undercliff at East point, above which tow- 
ers the rugged and lofty hill of Bonchurch, we come to Luccombe chine, which 
presents the picturesque features of rushing streams, hanging woods, scattered cotta- 
ges, dark-brown cliffs, and a fine seashore. About a mile farther on (to the north- 
east), occurs another of these curious ravines, deeply cut through the cliff by an incon- 
siderable rill. This is called Shanklin chine, and is the most beautiful and most 
frequently visited of all the chines (see engraving). Seen from below, it appears as 
if the solid cliff had been rent in twain from top to bottom : the mouth of the gap is 
very wide ; its sides are on one hand almost perpendicular, and on the other (to the 
right) more shelving, and partially clad with grass, and moss, and bushes, and wild 
flowers, and shaded with tall, graceful trees, among which, high over the head of 
the tourist who approaches by sea, are a few cottages most picturesquely disposed. 
On this side a long rude flight of steps leads up the cliff to a quiet little inn. The 
beach below this chine affords a delightful walk when the tide is out. 

We are now in Sandown bay, which sweeps in a beautiful curve from Shanklin 
chine to the Culver rocks. At the further end of this bay, Avhere the shores are flat 
and of easy access ?o an enemy, stands Sandown fort, a small work erected in the 
time of Charles I., and near to it they show a quiet little cottage, which was once 
the residence of the radical and restless John Wilkes. The contrast between the 
nature of the secluded spot and the character of the man is rather interesting. Ac- 
cording to his biographer; Wilkes bought Sandown cottage, in Sandown bay, in the 
parish of Brading, at the southeast end of the Isle of Wight, from Colonel (afterward 
General) James Barker, of Stickworth, in the Isle of Wight, in May, 1788. He re- 
sided there a good deal till his death, in December, 1797, and (according to this 
authority) by many improvements made it a very elegant abode. The cottage had 
been formerly in the occupation of the earl of Winchelsea. Wilkes was accustomed 
to call it his viWakin, and he dated many of his letters from the place. 

At the distance of about two miles from this spot, however, and to the southeast 
of it, the vast chalky precipice, called Culver cliff, shows itself with fine effect. A 
Led of coal, which is about three feet thick, and dips to the north, is seen at the foot 
of the precipice. This fossil occurs in some other parts of the Isle of Wight, but in 
such thin veins as not to answer the expense of working it. The summit of the 
cliff is about four hundred feet above the level of the sea, and affords a fine view 
across the British channel. The name of Culver, according to Mr. Pennant, is de- 
rived from the Anglo-Saxon Culfre, a pigeon, and applied here on account of the 
swarms of those birds which make the cliff their haunt. The same writer tells us, 
that at certain seasons these pigeons make most amazing flights, going daily, in vast 
Hocks, as far as the neighborhood of Oxford, to feed on the turnip-fields, and return- 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



67 




68 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

ing again to Culver cliff and the Freshwater cliffs, where they pass the night. The 
Culver is also much frequented by auks, and other birds that love to nestle in the 
holes and crannies of precipices. In former times it was famous for a breed of hawks 
much used in the sport of hawking, and of so valuable a kind, that, in 1564, Queen 
Elizabeth issued her warrant to Richard Worsley, esq., captain of the island, to 
make diligent search after some that had been stolen, as also " for the persons faultie 
of this stealth and presumptuous attempt." 

The grand scenery of these coasts terminates at Culver cliff. Doubling the east- 
ern extremity of the island, called the Foreland, and then coming to Bembridge 
point, the tourist will find himself at the narrow mouth of Brading haven, which is 
a shallow arm of the sea at high water, but a large and ugly puddle, with very little 
water in it, when the tide is out. Between eight hundred and nine hundred acres 
of marshy land are overflown at every tide and rendered useless. " My adventurous 
and noble countryman, Sir Hugh Middleton," says Pennant, "in the time of James 
I., in concert with Sir Bevis Thelwal, of the house of Bathavern, in Denbighshire, 
and page of the king's bedchamber, employed a number of Dutchmen to recover it 
from the sea by embankments. Seven thousand pounds were expended in the work, 
but partly by the badness of the soil, which proved a barren sand — partly by the 
choking of the drains for the fresh water, by the weeds and mud brought by the sea 
— but chiefly by a furious tide which made a breach in the bank — they were obliged 
to desist, and put a stop to their expensive project." 



CHAPTER VII. 
THE ISLE OF PORTLAND. 

Old writers affirm that Portland was once separated from the coast of Dorsetshire, 
and that it was, therefore, Teally an island ; but now it is joined by a ridge, which 
some have likened to a string. It is called the Chesil bank (see engraving), and an 
extraordinary bank it is. Its surface, or upper portion, is composed of rounded, 
loose pebbles, resting on hard, blue clay. From the northern extremity of the Isle 
of Portland it runs along the coast of Dorsetshire, separated from it by a narrow 
channel or arm of the sea, to near Abbotsbury, ten miles from Portland ; it then 
joins the land, and forms the outline of the Dorset coast, from Abbotsbury to near 
Bridport, a distance of about six miles. Chesil bank is in some places about a 
quarter of a mile broad, but its general breadth is much less. Mr. Smeaton, the 
engineer of Eddystone lighthouse, thought it had been formed at a comparatively 
recent period : "but it is very difficult to account satisfactorily either for its first for- 
mation or its continued existence. There is a similar and still more extensive ridge, 
bounding the Frische Haf, on the coast of Prussia." 

The bay between Weymouth and the isle is called Portland road, and this bay, 
in our cut, is represented as lying between Sandsfoot castle and Portland. Sands- 
foot castle (old spelling, Sandes Foote) was built by Henry VIII. It is now, as out 
cut represents it, a ruin. The usual approach from Weymouth to Portland is by 
Sandsfoot castle and Smallmouth sands, Smallmouth being the name of the mouth 
of the narrow channel between the coast of Dorset and the Chesil bank. A walk 
of a mile on the Smallmouth sands conducts the tourist to a ferry, where he is rowed 
across the "Fleet" to the Chesil bank. Here he may remark the nature of this 
curious ridge. The pebbles by which it is covered to the depth of four, five, and six 
feet, are chiefly of a white, calcareous spar (these are called Portland pebbles), but 
partly of quartz, chert, jasper, &c, so loose that a horse's legs sink almost knee-deep 
at every step. The bank slopes on the one side toward the open sea, and on the 
other toward the narrow inlet of the Fleet ; it rises gradually toward Portland, being 
there composed of pebbles as large as swans' eggs ; but in its course along the Dor- 
set coast the stones gradually diminish in size ; at Abbotsbury they are about the 
size of horse-beans, and more westward they degenerate into mere sand. The 



T112 IV L£ OF PORTLAND. 



69 




| 
I 






|; 



70 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

smugglers, who used to land at night, were thus furnished with a natural guage, by 
which they could tell where they were, whether near to Portland, or on the coast. 
The pebbly covering is continually shifting ; a northeast wind sometimes clears away 
the pebbles in parts, leaving the blue clay exposed, but the bare spaces are soon cov- 
ered again by the heavy sea which the southwest wind drives against the bank. At 
the northwest extremity of the Chesil bank there was once a "swannery," consisting 
of several thousand swans; wild swans still build in the neighboring swamps, and 
the Fleet is much frequented by different kinds of water-fowl. 

As one approaches the end of the Chesil bank, he distinguishes a line of houses 
disposed along the slope of the rock ; this is the village of Fortune's "Well. 

The Isle of Portland is about four miles long, and in the widest part, nearly one 
and a half broad. It is a bed or rock of freestone. The highest point in the island 
is 458 feet above the level of the sea ; the cliffs on the western side are very lofty, 
but those at the Bill of Portland are not more than twenty or thirty feet high. There 
is sufficient depth of vegetable soil to render the island tolerably productive, but not 
sufficiently so for the entire sustenance of the inhabitants, who get much of their 
provisions from Weymouth. Water is somewhat scarce ; there is no stream in the 
island, and the necessary supply is obtained from springs and wells, which are not 
numerous, but in which, however, the water is copious and good. The whole island 
is included in one parish, which contained, in 1831, a population of 2,670. 

The road from Fortune's Well to the western cliff is very steep, and commands 
fine views of the Chesil bank, and the low but picturesque shores of western Dor- 
setshire ; and from the top, on a clear day, Torbay in Devonshire may be distin- 
guished. Having attained the summit, the road runs to the right, on the extreme 
edge of the cliffs, from which a number of smaller roads, recurring at every hun- 
dred yards, run between lofty gullies in the face of the rocks, which rise about twenty 
feet above the main road. These " by-paths" lead to the quarries. If the visiter 
take any one of them, it will lead him through a series of well-stacked piles of sand- 
stone, into a stone-pit of irregular form, measuring, perhaps, 200 feet or more each 
way, and shut in by solid walls of variously stratified stone, to the height of about 
sixty feet. The scene is now a beautiful one: blocks of stone as large as good- 
sized rooms lie tumbled about in the most picturesque confusion — white intermingled 
with shades of yellow, gray, and red ; and enormous orange-colored stalactites, 
called by the quarrymen " congealed water," hang from the projecting rocks. 
Stains, the slow result of various decaying mosses and linchens steeped in the little 
rills, which are strongly impregnated with iron, give their mellowing hues to the 
picture. Before proceeding to explain the processes used in getting the stone, it will 
be necessary first to describe the structure of the crust, or superficial strata of the 
island. A visiter would accomplish this at once by a glance at any clean-faced cliff 
in his neighborhood, but in the absence of occular demonstration, the following 
description, and the cut in the next page, will very clearly exhibit its constitution : — 

First occurs the surface-soil, seven feet deep ; second, three layers of grit, called 
" burr-stone, cap, and skull-cap," or collectively, the " turf-layer," sixteen feet ; third, 
roach-stone, nine feet ; which immediately covers the good Portland stone of com- 
merce, in a compact, horizontal bed of about eight feet in depth. Beneath it follow 
various beds of clay, marl, flint, &c. Here, then, we have a superincumbent mass 
of earth and stone, 32 feet in depth, which must all be removed before a single foot 
of the good stone it covers can be procured — a hard task, and one which is rendered 
still more so by the fact, that till this-js done the workmen are not entitled to any 
remuneration. In a quarry of ordinary size, the labors of three years are required 
to accomplish the task. First, the layers of surface-soil and rubbish are dug, and 
earned in strong iron-bound barrows, to be thrown over the fallow-fields in the 
neighborhood. Next, the " turf-layer" is raised, but the obstinacy of its struc- 
ture and its weight, make it a work of serious labor. The strata of which it is com- 
posed sometimes present great solidity, and at other times are naturally split in large 
masses ; in both cases they have to be reduced to small lumps, and lifted into carts. 
The breakage is done by driving wedges, and other similar contrivances ; and the 
lifting by a peculiarly-formed shovel, whose long handle is laid along the thigh, and 
the load raised by a sudden jerk, the combined action of the arm and knee, and 
thrown into a cart, to which seven or more horses are attached, and by whom it is 
carried, either to be thrown over the cliffs into the sea, or piled up in large mounds, 
at a distance. 



THE ISLE OF PORTLAND. . 



7i 




72 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

The roach-stone is the next stratum, and as it is unbroken in its mass, of great 
hardness, and nine or more feet in depth, it requires of course a long struggle tc 
accomplish its removal. After clearing the surface, the first step taken is the prep- 
aration of a blast, for splitting the roach into blocks sufficiently small for removal. 
A circular hole, four feet eight inches in depth, by three inches in width, is then 
drilled in the rock : filled at the bottom to the height of two and a half inches with 
gunpowder, tightly rammed, and connected with a train on the outside. This is then 
fired, and an explosion follows, which splits the stone for several yards around, into 
perpendicular rents of about an inch across. The masses of stone between these 
rifts have now to be removed, and as some of them weigh upward of fifty tuns, an 
amount of power would seem to be required, far beyond the compass of half a dozen 
quarrymen, and the scanty mechanical means at their disposal. The only instruments 
used are rollers of various sizes, and strong double-handed jacks; months are conse- 
quently consumed in the slow-paced operation. Three of the jacks are placed against 
the mass, and then follows what may perhaps be justly deemed the severest struggle 
in which human bones and muscles were ever engaged. More than one hundred 
thousand pounds of stone have to be moved a hundred yards and more over heaps of 
loose stones, by half a dozen men ! The jacks being fixed in the most advantageous 
positions, the men commence to heave round the winches ; and then the shrill cry is 
heard of " high, boys, high,'' repeated with great rapidity. Meanwhile the winches 
of the jacks, turned against so prodigious an amount of resistance, make a progress 
as slow as the minute hand of a watch. It is sufficient, however, if they do really 
turn at all, for it is by the smallest possible degrees the removal is at length accom- 
plished, and the pit cleared for the production of the best stone. The exhaustion 
which these labors occasioned is evidenced by the frequent periods of rest, and in 
the constant use of the water-keg, from which they drink copiously. One of the 
men, when asked if the work was hard, said, " Sir, we are obliged to heave our hearts 
out, and all in the sun, too !" They do not, however, appear to suffer any perma- 
nent damage by their labors, and but little abatement of strength, even in extreme 
old age. A night's rest cures all. One old fellow upward of seventy years of age, 
who was doing the work of the strongest, remarked that through that long period 
he had never known sickness. The secret of this is to be found in pure air, free ex- 
posure to all weathers, and a certain quietude of mind. 

When a quarry has been cleared of its rubbish, and the flooring of good Portland 
stone brought fairly into view, the real business of a quarryman — that by which he 
would choose to be known — commences. All his preliminary labors have required 
little beyond the exercise of mere strength, but now judgment and ingenuity are 
called for in the selection and preparation of the rude lumps of stone for architect- 
ural purposes ; and the laborer becomes an artisan. The cleared bed of pure stone 
is found to be split in numerous directions by what are called "gullies," and these 
of course divide it into masses, varying in size according to the width of the gullies. 
In this way blocks of every imaginable size and form are procured ; and when they 
have been wedged out, a council is held by the men, and it is discussed whether this 
one would make a pier-stone for a bridge; another, a shaft for a column ; a third, a 
baluster for a parapet, and so on. These important uses determined, the masses are 
severally dragged to convenient spots, and reduced to square or appropriate forms by 
the action of a double-headed iron picker, called a " kivel," and weighing twenty- 
five pounds. The only business remaining, previous to the delivery of the stones to 
the wharf, is to ascertain their weight, and to mark it on them. The former is com- 
puted by measure, sixteen square feet being estimated to weigh a tun ; and the latter 
by cutting the amount in certain hieroglyphic characters. A monogram of the propri- 
etor's name is also added. 

When the stone is ready for delivery, it is lifted on a stage-like cart, with solid 
wooden wheels, exactly resembling the wagon of the ancients and the Moorish bull- 
cart of Spain at this day. To this is yoked seven horses ; and in the case of the 
western quarries it is then taken to a railway station at the top of Fortune's Well 
hill, and entrusted to the care of a company, Avho send it round the hills by inclined 
planes, to a wharf at the foot of the Chesil bank, a mile and a half distance. 

The Portland quarrymen constitute about 500 of the population, and are evidently 
a distinct and well-defined race. They are nobly formed, and come very nearly to 
the finest antique models of strength and beauty. In height they vary from five feet 
ten inches to six feet. Large bones, well-knit and strongly-compacted muscles, con- 



THE ISLE OF PORTLAND. 



Ti 




74 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

firmed in their united energies by the hardest labor, in a pure atmosphere, give them 
a power so herculean, that three cwts. is lifted by men of ordinary strength with ease. 
Their features are regularly and boldly developed ; eyes black, but deprived of their 
due expression by a partial closure of the lids, caused by the glare of the stone ; com- 
plexion a bright ruddy orange ; the hair dark and plentiful, and the general expres- 
sion of the countenance mild and intelligent. Their usual summer costume on 
working days is a slouched straw hat, covered with canvass and painted black, a shirt 
with narrow blue stripes, and white canvass trousers. On Sundays they add to these 
a sailor's short blue jacket, and look very like good-natured tars in their holyday 
trim. 

Pennsylvania castle, the residence of the late Governor Penn, is the only place in 
VPortland assuming the dignity of " a seat ;" and is also the only spot on which any- 
thing like a clump of trees is visible. An old historian, speaking of this circum- 
stance, says " there be very few or utterly no trees, saving the elms about the church 
(now gone). There would grow more if they were there planted ; yet is the isle 
very bleak." This sensible remark has been amply verified in the grounds before 
us. The common sycamore will stand the severest sea breezes, and under the shel- 
ter it affords, almost any forest-tree may be grown. By surrounding his land with a 
ring fence of them, Mr. Penn succeeded in embossing his house with a very agreea- 
ble variety of trees and shrubs, while all around him was a desert. A winding path 
leads past a ruined oratory, to Bow-and-Arrow castle, a noble remnant of the days 
of Stephen. It stands three hundred feet above the level of the sea, on a perpendic- 
ular cliff split into rift's like the empty veins of a lead mine, and so loosened by age, 
they seem every moment to threaten separation, and to bring the proud pile that crowns 
them to destruction. Turning the angle of the castle wall, a fine view is before us. 
On the left there is a range of cliff scenery from two to three hundred feet in height ; 
an undercliff at its base, about one thousand feet in breadth, is covered with a profu- 
sion of dislocated rocks, amid which many litile clearance quarries may be distin- 
guished. To the right the sea spreads into the distance, bounded in the horizon by 
the Isle of Wight, and more nearly by the white undulating cliffs of Dorsetshire. A 
walk through the ruins of the undercliff claims our first attention. A precipitous 
path from the castle leads to it. On reaching it the traveller will be surprised to see 
that what had appeared at a distance to be a " waste howling wilderness," is in re- 
ality a paradise of* flowers ; indeed, the undercliff and the adjacent heights constitute 
together the garden of the island. The land-plants of the undercliff are all of a 
miniature description, or what botanists would call " starved specimens" — a little- 
ness which results from the scarcity of earth, mould being formed almost exclusively 
by the decomposition of the rocks. We may here remark, that the influence of 
plants in the production of color is much overlooked ; and as they affect peculiar lo- 
calities, and by their predominance give them distinct and highly characteristic as- 
pects, deserve the best study, both of the poet and the painter. In no place is this 
more strikingly exhibited than the present. Various species of stonecrop (Sedum) 
of a warm ruddy green fill the angles of the rocks ; spurges, particularly the purple 
(Euphorbia Peplis), the sea (E. Paralias), and the Hortland spurge (E. Portlandica), 
grow plentifully, and exhibit bright warm yellows, changing in decay to vivid reds, 
which, together with the former, give great splendor to the foregrounds. The 
golden samphire (Inula erilhmoides), the scarlet seeds of the flags (Irideae), and 
the dark green leaves of the ivy, which is sparingly found, frequently combine with 
the pale red and pink flowers of various species of cranesbills (Geraniceae), to mantle 
the gray rocks with robes of beauty. Numerous species of lichens literally paint the 
rocks ; the majority of them are of a bluish-gray tinge, intermingled with occasional 
.patches of red and yellow. Warm clusters of ferns and hearts-tongues add elegance 
of form to the splendor of the adjacent tints. 

The margin of the sea is also beautiful. The sunken rocks of which the beach is 
composed are covered with fuci of every degree of warm tints; and these contrast 
with the blue of the sea and masses of submerged chalk. The forms and motions 
of these aquatic vegetables give a gay character to the shore — some short and pad- 
dle-formed ; others long and riband-shaped ; hundreds of every variety of branched 
and fibrous forms, and some again fine and delicate in their structure ; but all of them 
streaming in long undulating fields, gracefully waving with the advancing or re- 
treating waters, while occasionally an uprooted conferva peeps above the surface, is 
driven toward the shore, dances awhile, and sinks at length, to be again and again 



THE ISLE OF PORTLAND. 75 

thrown up to the surface. The often unheeded music of common sounds also lends 
its aid to the beauties of the scene. The sea, as it lashes over the pebbles in long 
sinuosities of foam, or, swelling in broad sheets, bursts on the larger rocks, utters an 
alternate series of brisk and hollow sounds. Linnets in happy couples chitter in 
their short zigzag flights from rock to rock, till the echoing cliffs send back their 
softened merriment; the prolonged monotone of the wheat-ear lends an elevated and 
tender emphasis to the melody of the waters, while the blackbird in Governor Penn's 
shrubbery seems with his mellow pipe to plead against the gossip of the sparrows 
and the loquacity of the daws in the cliff-tops. 

In returning to the castle, it will be worth notice how completely the character 
of the landscape is changed by viewing it with the face to the sun : in that position 
the shadowed sides only of the rocks are seen, and all appears harsh, angular, 
and dismal ; but turn your back to the light, and the warm sunbeams change every- 
thing into light and beauty. The manner in which the various rocks decay will 
also deserve a passing observation. Most of them, being compounded of different 
elements, decay in the order of their coherence. In some the soft matters vanish, 
leaving a curious aggregate of crystals, bones, or shells ; others shrink into singular 
honey-combed forms, or resolve in straight lines, circles, or shapeless masses, which 
leave the block tunnelled with large holes. Many decay in forms so strange, that 
they would be difficult to describe. We noticed one that looked like an enormous 
cluster of worm-casts. 

The walk on the cliffs from Bow-and-Arrow castle is of a mountainous but soft- 
ened character, and terminates in a lofty conical mound, called the Vern hill, com- 
posed of clayey soil, and carpeted with the most delightful verdure. From its top, 
during the spring and early summer months, a phenomenon of great and rare splen- 
dor may be observed. At those times, although the sun exerts considerable power, 
the air is still comparatively cold ; this is frequently the case in so great a degree on 
the coast lands of England, that immense volumes of foggy vapor are raised from the 
warm surface of the earth, and immediately condensed into bright fleecy clouds. 
These leave the mainland, and stretching across the sea, cover the whole of the 
lower parts of Portland, the higher parts remaining meanwhile perfectly clear. " On 
such occasion," remarks a traveller, "I made it my business to leave the ' cloud- 
capt' valleys and ascend as high as mother earth would permit. On the first ascent 
I saw the whole circuit of the island swaddled in what appeared to be an immense 
belt of rolling clouds, over which the sun was shining brilliantly. The sea was 
gone — the cliffs were immersed — and nothing was visible but the flat top of the 
island, which looked like an Alpine garden floating in the clouds. It was the most 
splendid sight I had ever witnessed. I saw this spectacle repeatedly during my 
stay in the island, and always found something new to admire. Sometimes the clouds 
would suddenly disperse, and then the coasts of England, the sea, and the base of 
the island, would one after another appear, and would be again immersed in clouds. 
At other times the silvery veil would slowly leave the island, and sailing gently over 
the ocean, conceal first the ships, then St. Adhelm's head on the coast of Dorsetshire ; 
next the Isle of Wight ; and then withdrawing, would reveal those objects in all 
their freshness and beauty. Occasionally, also, the cloudy canopy would not be 
equally dense, or partial rents would occur in it ; and then, perhaps, a ship, a house, 
or a cow, would be observed, and look as if floating in mid air. The sea aids this 
remarkable spectacle ; for although it is shut from view, its noise is heard, and lends 
a feeling of mystery to the scene." 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




THE ISLE OF JERSEY. 77 



CHAPTER VII 1/ 

THE ISLE OF JERSEY. 

Jersey is in form an irregular parallelogram, about ten miles long and five broad. 
Its greatest length, from southeast to northwest, is about twelve miles. Its circum- 
ference, taking all the sinuosities and windings, is nearly fifty miles. Its superfices 
contains about forty thousand acres. The surface of the island slopes from north to 
south — the whole of the northern coast, with the eastern and western shoulders, be- 
ing composed of lofty, precipitous cliffs, while the southern shore, though fringed 
with crags and beds of rock?, lies low, and has a considerable portion of sandy beach. 
The whole circumference of the island is indented by bays, coves, and inlets. 

Jersey is locally divided into twelve parishes, each with its old-fashioned parish 
church. The town of St. Helier, the only town in the island (for all the other col- 
lections of houses have no claim to a higher title than hamlets or villages), lies in 
the parish of the same name, on the southern shore. Not far from St. Helier's is St. 
Saviour's ; southwest of St. Helier's, on the seashore, is St. Brelade's ; St. Ouen's is 
on the western side of the island ; St. Mary's, St. Peter's, and St. Lawrence's, may 
be termed inland churches. Not far from the north coast are St. John's and Trinity ; 
and on the east are St. Martin's, Grouville, and St. Clement's. 

St. Helier, we have said, is on the southern shore ; it lies on the eastern side of the 
beautiful bay of St. Aubin. In proceeding to St. Helier from England, we sail by 
the western side of Jersey, turn round by the craggy southwestern corner of the 
island, pass St. Brelade's bay, and, rounding Normoint point, a projecting rock form- 
ing the southwestern extremity of St. Aubin's bay, sail across the bay to its eastern 
side, passing the rock on which stands Elizabeth castle (see engraving). 

The rock on which Elizabeth castle is built is not less than a mile in circumfer- 
ence ;and one is surprised, on passing through the gateway, to find a wide grassy 
level, terminated by extensive barracks and their appurtenances. In war time, this 
fortress was an important place, and no doubt presented to the eye and ears of the 
traveller a very different scene from that which it now presents. Decay seems now 
to be creeping over it ; and although a solitary sentinel is still to be seen pacing to 
and fro, and although pyramids of shot still occupy their accustomed places, grass 
and weeds have forced their way through the interstices, and the rows of dismounted 
cannon show that the stirring days of war have gone by. May the weeds long grow, 
and the rust continueto creep over the engines of death ! 

On the top of a rock, situated a little to the south of Elizabeth castle, and, like it, 
accessible at low water, may still be seen the rude remains of a hermitage, the can- 
onized tenant of which is said to have given name to St. Helier. 

Elizabeth castle, as a fortification, has been thrown into the shade by a huge for- 
tress, termed Fort Regent, which was begun in 1806. It was erected at an expense 
of eight hundred thousand pounds ; but the utility of the work bears no proportion 
whatever to the immense sum of money which it cost. 

St. Ouen's bay occupies nearly the whole of the western side of Jersey, forming a 
curve between four and five miles in length. There is nothing, however, remarkable on 
this side of the island. The bay of St. Ouen presents a large, flat, sandy tract, which 
is exposed to all the fury of the western gales. Part of the bay is said by Falle to 
have been a fertile valley, in which grew an actual forest of oaks, but was submerged 
about the end of the fifteenth, or beginning of the sixteenth century. He also men- 
tions that the inhabitants had a traditional belief, that the irruption of the sea was a 
judgment from heaven. 

St. Brelade's bay is one of the many bays, creeks, and coves, of various dimensions, 
which indent the circumference of Jersey, and though not the most remarkable, is a 
singular and interesting spot. The church stands on the western side of the bay, the 
churchyard being washed by the sea at high water, " The whole building," saya 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES 




THE ISLE OF JERSEY. 



79 




St. Brelade's Church. 



Mr Plees, " is small, very plain, both internally and externally. It has neither spire 
nor tower, but over the nave it is roofed like a house. There is indeed a round tur- 
ret, that rises from the ground, but which is built in a nook, and ascends only to a 
small belfry." One of the old chapels of the island, which are stated to be anterior 
in the date of their erection to the churches, is in St. Brelade's churchyard. It is the 
only one in tolerable preservation. " It was called," says Plees, " ' La Chapelle es 
pecheurs.' St. Brelade's bay," he adds, "is a semicircular basin, the regular con- 
tour of which is broken on its eastern side by a projecting mass of rocks, by which a 
second curve is made, forming a smaller bay. The valley is a steril spot, scantily 
strewed over with meagre blades of grass, yet a species of ground-rose creeps over 
the sandy surface. The flower resembles the common dog-rose, and is delightfully 
fragrant." *' The shores of this bay," says Mr. Inglis, " are sloping, as are all the 
southern shores of the island, and are everywhere covered with a small ground-rose, 
of the finest color, and emitting all the fragrance of the ' rose d'amour.' Excepting 
in the southern parts of Bavaria, I have never observed this rose elsewhere than in 
Jersey." 

Another object of great interest in the Isle of Jersey is Mount-Orgueil castle (see 
engraving). Mount-Orgueil castle (Orguetl is lofty or proud) has some interesting 
recollections connected with it. Here, for a time, lived Charles II., during the days 
of his wandering, before he came to that throne, the possession of which he so grossly 
abused : and here, for three years, was imprisoned one of the victims of the ignorance 
and evil passion of the age, William Prynne. Prynne was the victim of bigotry, yet 
he himself had much of the bigot in his spirit and prejudices. In a petition to the 
house of commons, in 1641, he complains that he was sent from Caernarvon castle 
to Jersey " in a bruised shipwrackt vessel, full of leakes, and after foureteene weekes 
voyage in the winter season, through dangerous stormes and seas, which spoyled 
most of his stufle and bedding, and threatening often shipwrack to him, he arrived 



80 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

at the said isle, and was conveyed close prisoner into Mont Orgatile castle." Yet 
this heroic and dauntless sage of the law, who for the freedom of his speech and wri- 
ting was fined, put in the pillory, had his ears cropped, and was sent from prison to 
prison, makes it one of his complaints in his petition, that some of his fellow-prison- 
ers and passengers to Jersey were Roman catholics, with whom he was compelled 
to associate ! While Prynne was in Mount-Orgueil castle, he celebrated it in verse, 
and entitled his poem, " A poetical description of Mount-Orgueil castle, in the Isle 
of Jersey, interlaced with some brief meditations from its rocky steep and lofty situ- 
ation." 

Mount-Orgueil castle is the most ancient of the fortifications of Jersey ; it has seen 
service in its day. How long it existed previous to the reign of King John is not 
known — at that time it was enlarged and strengthened. The rocky headland on 
which it stands, whose lofty appearance has given origin to the name, juts out into 
the sea, separating Grouville bay and St. Catherine's ba,y, which occupy the greater 
part of the eastern side of Jersey. " Whether seen from land or from sea, Mount 
Orgueil is well entitled to the appellation of an imposing ruin. In many parts the 
walls are yet entire ; but in other places, massive as they are, they have yielded to 
the pressure of time ; and the mantle of ivy, which in most parts hangs from their 
very summits, is in fine unison with the gray tint of age that here and there is seen 
where the Avails are bare, and with the loopholes and 'rents that time has made.' 
The ascent to the summit is somewhat toilsome ; but one is amply repaid for the 
labor of it by the magnificence of the prospect. It embraces several of the bays 
which lie on either side — the richly-wooded range of heights, that girds the central 
parts of the island.; the village [of Gorey] far below, with its harbor and shipping ; 
the whole expanse of sea ; and the distant coast of France." The cathedral of Cou- 
tance, in Normandy, can be distinguished on clear days. 

One remarkable custom still exists in Jersey, in nearly all its pristine vigor, for the 
wants of the inhabitants uphold it. This is the collection of the seaweed, which 
serves both as manure and fuel. Dr. M'Culloch, in his geological tour over Jersey, 
found no trace of lime. Falle mentions the want, and describes the substitution of 
seaweed. Plees thus amplifies the account of Falle : " Though neither chalk, lime- 
stone, nor marl, has been hitherto discovered in the island, yet the Divine Goodness 
has not left Jersey without a substitute for manure : this is seaweed, of different spe- 
cies of algae, all called in the island by the general name of 'vraic' This marine 
vegetable grows luxuriantly on the rocks round the coast. It is gathered only at cer- 
tain times, appointed by public authority. There are two seasons for cutting it. A 
part is dried and serves for fuel, after which the ashes are used for manure ; and part 
is spread, as fresh gathered, on the ground, and ploughed in ; it is likewise scattered, 
in the same state, over meadow land, and is said to promote the growth of grass. It 
may, perhaps, have this effect ; but, as the solar heat in summer-time, and the fre- 
quent stormy winds, soon parch' it, some of its salutary influence seems likely to be 
lost; and it appears probable that a slight sprinkling of sea water would, though 
perhaps in a less degree, have a similar effect. Vraicking is a dangerous employ- 
ment. Fatal accidents happen almost every season. The boats go to a considerable 
distance from the shore, and return deeply laden. A sudden squall rises, the cur- 
rents are rapid, and the unwieldy bark is either overset, or whelmed beneath the 
surge." 

Inglis gives a more cheerful description of " vraicking." The French word varech, 
equivalent to our general expression seaweed, is in the Jersey dialect " vraic ;" there 
are two seasons for gathering it, summer and winter, the days of commencement 
being appointed by the court, each time about ten days. " When the vraicking sea- 
son begins, those whose families are not numerous enough to collect the needful sup- 
ply assist each other ; and the vraicking parties, consisting of eight, ten, or twelve 
persons, sally forth betimes, from all parts of the island, to their necessary, laborious, 
but apparently cheerful work. Although a time of labor, it is also a season of mer- 
riment : ' vraicking cakes,' made of flour, milk, and sugar, are plentifully partaken 
of: and on the cart, which accompanies the party to the sea-beach, is generally slung 
a little cask of something to drink, and a suitable supply of eatables. Every individ- 
ual is provided with a small scythe, to cut the weed from the rocks, and with strong 
leg and foot gear. The carts proceed as far as the tide will allow them, and boats, 
containing four or six persons, carry the vraickers to the more distant rocks, which 
are unapproachable in any other way. 



THE ISLE OF JERSEY. 



81 






-^9lli| 




*?r 




?;> 



5 'A;',' 




82 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

" It is truly a busy and a curious scene : at this season, at half-tide, or low water, 
multitudes of carts, and horses, and boats, and vraickers, cover the beach, the rocks, 
ar d the water ; and so anxious are the people to make the most of their limited time, 
that I have often seen horses swimming and carts floating — so unwilling are the 
vraickers to be driven from their spoil by the inexorable tide. 

"But this seaweed is not, as I have said, employed solely as manure, but is also 
used as fuel ; and for this purpose it is collected at other times than at the regular 
vraicking seasons, not from the rocks indeed, but from the sea-beach ; for, of course, 
some of the weed is constantly detaching itself from the rocks, and is borne to the 
shore by the tide. The collection of this seaweed is a constant employment with 
those who live near the seashore ; and the produce of their labor is either used for 
fuel, or is sold to those who want it. At almost all times, men, women, and chil- 
dren — but chiefly the two latter — are to be seen at this employment, gathering, or 
spreading the weed out to dry : they use a rake, or three-pronged pitchfork, and a 
wheelbarrow, in which it is carried above high-water mark to be dried. This is the 
universal fuel of the country, and it makes a hot, if not a cheerful fire. Coal is 
scarcely at all used, and only a very small quantity of wood along with the vraic, 
and this event not universally. On feast days only, and family gatherings, a coal fire 
is lighted in the best parlor." 



CHAPTER IX. 

.THE ISLE OF GUERNSEY. 

The rural scenery of Guernsey, though destitute, in some measure, of both wood 
and water (meandering streams), two essential requisites to constitute the finished 
'andscape, might almost vie with that of the Isle of Wight, which, for beauty, has 
long been celebrated as the garden of England. Some of the bays are .grand and 
romantic ; particularly those of Petit-Bo and Moulin-Huit, and the village of the 
King's Mills, embosomed in hills (excepting on the west, which opens to the sea), 
are perhaps the most picturesque and enchanting, though the scenery about St 
Martin's is much to be admired. In spring, the whole face of the country is 
clad in the richest vesture ; primroses, violets, and blue-bells cover the verdant 
banks ; and the apple blossoms of the numerous orchards, which have the fanciful 
appearance of small, blooming coppices, and in part supply the want of wood-sce- 
nery, are beautiful beyond description ; even the little rills, though not seen mean- 
dering through the meadows, nevertheless add to the beauty of the landscape by 
turning the overshot wheels of several mills in deep valleys, which have a pretty 
effect ; in short, such a profusion of flowers of all sorts unfold their varied hues, and 
fruit and vegetation in general are so plentiful and luxuriant, that Flora and Pomona 
seem to vie with each other in lavish distribution on this their favored isle. 

The island of Guernsey is almost entirely of granitic formation. Its shape ap- 
proaches the triangular, broad at the south end, and tapering to the north. Its 
breadth, at the south end, is about seven miles ; at the north end from one to two ; 
and in the centre of the island about three. Its extreme length, from the northeast 
to the southwest, is about nine miles ; the average length about six. The super- 
ficies of the island contains 15,559 acres ; of which, however, a considerable portion 
is waste, or meadow, recently reclaimed from the sea. The population qf the island 
in 1831 was 24,349 ; of which 13,893 were in the town of St. Peter's Port. 

Nearly in the centre of the east side of the island is a long curve, or irregular bay, 
in which lies the town of St. Peter's Port. As St. Helier's, in Jersey, as its rock in 
the harbor, with Elizabeth castle, so St. Peter's Port has its rock, with Castle Cor- 
net. Both, formerly, were the residences of the respective governors of the islands. 
Castle Cornet, like Mount Orgueil, is a very ancient fortification. As its story of 
Beige and defence may not be so interesting as the account of an accident which 
befell it, we may pass by the one, and give the other, as circumstantially detailed by 
Berry : — 



THE ISLE OF GUERNSEY. 



83 




84 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

"The dfeadful catastrophe by fire happened on the 29th December, 1672, by the 
lightning communicating with the magazine, which blew up, with a terrible explo- 
sion, carrying with it most of the houses and lodgings of the castle, and in particulai 
some new and handsome buildings, then lately erected at considerable expense, by 
the governor, Lord Viscount Hatton, who (together with his family and some other 
persons) was lodged at the time in a part of the castle thrown down by the shock, 
and buried in the ruins. It appears that the dowager Lady Hatton, who was in the 
upper part of the castle, called the new buildings, was killed by the falling in of the 
ceiling of her apartment. Lady Hatton, the wife of the governor, and daughter of 
the earl of Thanet, being greatly terrified at the thunder and lightning, had fled to 
her children in the nursery, and was likewise destroyed, with her waiting-woman 
and nurse, the latter of whom was found dead, with his lordship's second daughter 
in her arms, unhurt ; though it is related that the child held in her hands a small 
silver cup, her usual plaything, which was much battered and bruised. The young- 
est child, who lay in a cradle almost filled with rubbish, was likewise saved without 
the least injury. But beside those mentioned, several other persons lost their lives. 
A marvellous story is related of his lordship's preservation, who, it is stated, was 
fast asleep at the time ; and by the explosion was carried away in his bed, unhurt, 
to the battlement of a wall washed by the sea, between rugged precipices; and, 
what is still more extraordinary, it is averred to be a fact, that his lordship did not 
awake till a shower of hailstones that fell on his face roused him from his sound 
repose. He was then conveyed by two black servants to the guardroom of the castle, 
iii a state of anxiety for the safety of his family, more easily conceived than de- 
scribed ; but their melancholy fate could not be ascertained till daylight. A lieu- 
tenant of a company of foot, whose apartment was under that of his lordship, was 
forced by the shock into an entry beneath, and escaped unhurt. Lord Hatton's two 
sisters, an ensign belonging to his lordship's company, and his wife, with several 
other persons occupying apartments in the upper buildings of the castle, were also 
providentially saved. A large beam, it is said, fell between Lord Hatton's two sis- 
ters, who were before together, and completely separated them ; from which perilous 
situation they were rescued, with little hurt, through a hole obliged to be cut in a 
party wall for the purpose. None of the others were seriously injured, though their 
rooms fell in, and they were nearly buried in their beds with the rubbish." 

Castle Cornet is a very striking object in approaching St. Peter's Port. It is not 
so picturesque an object as Elizabeth castle, because it is not, like the latter, flanked 
by other rocks than that upon which it is built ; and the folly of whitewashing 
part of it has greatly injured its naturally venerable appearance. It is difficult to 
distinguish between Elizabeth castle and the rock upon which it is built, but the 
renovators of Castle Cornet have taken care to make the line distinct enough. The 
castle is at present in a tolerable state of repair, mounts some cannon, and is garri- 
soned by a few soldiers. There are some good houses within it, though, as might 
be expected, it is not a strong fortification, in the modern acceptation of the phrase. 

The town of St. Peter's Port looks remarkably well from the water, and in this 
respect completely eclipses St. Helier's, in Jersey. It is built on the slope of an 
eminence, the houses overtopping each other ; and on approaching after sunset, the 
various lights from the windows and the public lamps give it really a brilliant ap- 
pearance. But, like many more important places than St. Peter's Port, these ap- 
pearances are deceptive ; and all the apparent attractions of the town disappear 
when one steps on shore. The first impressions of St. Peter's Port are decidedly 
unfavorable. We perambulate narrow, steep, and crooked streets, flanked by sub- 
stantial, indeed, but old-looking, dusky houses ; and walk as long as we may, we 
reach no open space, where we may stop and look about us. We speak at present 
of the town only, not of the environs, which are delightfully situated. The advan- 
tage which St. Helier possesses over St. Peter's Port is this, that the houses of the 
gentry are thrown into rows and streets, and form a part of the town ; whereas, the 
better houses in Guernsey are not within the town, but are detached residences; and 
herein consists the great beauty of the environs of St. Peter's Port, which just as far 
exceed the expectations of the traveller, as the town falls below them. . 

The " lions" of St. Peter's Port are, its handsome fishmarket, its hospital or 
refuge for the destitute, and Elizabeth college. To these we may add the parish 
church. The fishmarket is quite a creditable thing to so small a town and so 
small an island. So also is the hospital or workhouse, for' the excellent manage- 



THE ISLE OF GUERNSEY. 



S5 







86 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

ment and support of which the people of Guernsey deserve great praise. Elizabeth 
college is a fine building ; it stands on an elevation behind the town, with a spa= 
cious area round it, ornamentally laid out. 

The visiter will be struck with the superior neatness of the cottages of Guernsey, 
as compared with those of Jersey. He will also remark the passion which the 
people of Guernsey have for flowers. Splendid geraniums may be seen trailed up 
the front of many of the cottages, and among the other flowers cultivated, we must 
not forget the far-famed Guernsey lily, the pride of the island, and the favorite of 
every gardener, and every cottager who has a bit of garden ground. The Guernsey 
lily belongs to the amarylidese, or narcissus tribe of plants, and is a native of Japan. 
It is said to have been introduced into Guernsey by accident. A vessel, having some 
roots on board, was wrecked off the island, and these being washed on shore, grew 
up on the beach ; and the Hon. Mr. Hatton, son of Lord Hatton, the then governor, 
being charmed by the beauty of the flower, set about its cultivation, and natural- 
ized it. 

Guernsey is easily examined. The north end of the island is narrow, bare, and 
ugly, a large portion of it only having been reclaimed from the sea a few years ago, 
through the exertions of the same worthy governor who accomplished the making 
of the roads. It had previously been a marsh ; and when the tide was full, the 
northern end of the island was completely cut off' from the rest of it, and could only 
be approached by a bridge or causeway. The water was shut out by an embankment ; 
the land was sold, and is now enclosed ; and the purchase-money was applied to the 
making of the new roads. The southern and southwestern sides of Guernsey con- 
tain whatever of natural scenery is worth seeing. The environs of St. Peter's Port 
have been already mentioned. There is a fine field in the neighborhood of the town, 
called the New Ground, which is surrounded with double rows of trees, and was in- 
tended as a promenade for the inhabitants, though the inhabitants do not choose to 
promenade there, but, like their neighbors of Jersey, prefer the pier. From this 
ground there is a fine marine view — as there is to be obtained all round the town — 
which includes in it the islands of Herm, Jethou, and Serk. 

The Serk, or Sercq, is decidedly the most interesting of the whole group of the 
channel islands. It lies about six or seven miles from St. Peter's Port ; and appears 
at a little distance, to be an elevated table-land, presenting on all sides frowning walls 
of rock. On the side next to Guernsey there is no mode of access but by slinging 
one's self by ropes up the rock ; or, if the boatmen can be persuaded to go round 
the island there is a scanty slip of beach, with a door and a tunnel in the rock, through 
which the visiter finds entrance. In. this harbor there is a beautiful little fountain of 
the clearest and coolest water, continually trickling down the rock, which is received 
in a natural basin, from which the fishermen fill their casks. The harbor is exactly 
what one might fancy to be a pirate's den — and indeed,* during a portion of the four- 
teenth century, Serk was a pirate's nest, but that was before the tunnel was made. 
The tunnel, which is not unlike the entrance to a beehive, escapes notice at first; 
and the visiter feels that though landed in the harbor of Serk, he is still outside of the 
island. But after getting through this tunnel, instead of finding the island to be a 
flat, elevated country, it is found to be "covered with luxuriant crops — is diversified 
with wood — is intersected by roads — is broken into romantic valleys — is spotted with 
substantial farmhouses — and maintains in comfort and independence a hardy and 
industrious population of between five and six hundred." 

The peninsula of Little Serk is connected with the main island by a high narrow 
ridge. This is about three hundred yards in length, and has a precipitous face to the 
sea on the eastern side ; to the west it is also partly rocky and precipitous, and the 
remainder is a steep declivity of broken rocks and rubbish. It is called the Coupee, 
and on the top of it is a rugged path of frightful appearance, being in many places 
not above a yard or two in breadth, and in most without boundary on either hand. 
By this, the communication between the two parts of the island is kept up. 

The Coupee and the rocks and precipices in its neighborhood, are much visited by 
strangers. The engraving represents a favorite " pic-nic" spot ; it is covered with 
grass to the summit. Serk may be described as an island having a body and head, 
joined by a narrow neck. The body is Great Serk, being the chief portion of the 
island, the head is Little Serk, and the neck is the Coupee. This, therefore, is a 
chief wonder of the remarkable island of Serk. The neck or isthmus is about four 
or five feet broad, with precipices on either side of about three hundred feet down to 



THE ISLE OF GUERNSEY. 



87 




The Coupee Rock, Serk. 

the sea. On the one side the descent is perpendicular, on the other precipitous ; but 
though Mr. Inglis says that a person would be more rash than bold in attempting a 
descent, with a little careful dexterity, one can scramble up and down. The bridge 
or neck of rock is, of course, dangerous in windy weather, there being no fence or 
protection on either side. Mr. Inglis tells a droll story about an inhabitant of Little 
Serk, who was a frequent visiter of Great Serk, and often prolonged his visit at the 
public house. But being cautious in his cups, he always made an experiment with 
himself before he ventured across the narrow bridge. A piece of artillery had been 
posted near the spot during the war, ai.-' the tippler would try himself by walking 
on the cannon from end to end two or three times. If he accomplished this without 
slipping, he judged himself steady enough to cross to Little Serk ; but if otherwise, 
then he lay down in the heath and indulged himself with a nap. On awaking he 
renewed the experiment, and if then steady enough, he jogged homeward. 

Altogether, Serk is a very remarkable place, with its caverns, its steep and many- 
colored rocks, its fruitful and romantic valleys and dells, its " creux terrible," a pit 
in the rock, into which the sea enters by a cavern below, and " from whose d rkness 
and profundity one instinctively draws back ;" not omitting the Coupee, and Little 
Serk, with the ladder of ropes on one side of the island, and the harbor and its door- 
way and tunnel on the other. Add to these its recently-opened mines, from which 
copper and silver have been obtained in small quantities. No wonder Mr. Inglis 
exclaims, " What a retreat would Serk be to the professional or the literary man from 
the din of the metropolis ! What a contrast between the crowd, and bustle, and noise 
of Fleet street, and the repose and free air of Serk, with its deep still dells and flowery 
knolls, and quiet bays and monotonous sounds." Yet in speaking of the healthiness 
and longevity of the inhabitants, he dryly puts this question — "Are ten years added 
to one's life an equivalent for a life spent in Serk ?" 



8S DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

Herm and Jethou need not detain us long. They are islets lying off the east side 
of Guernsey, about midway between it and Serk. Herm has granite quarries, the 
working of which gives employment to a number of individuals, and has increased 
its population to about two hundred ; its shores are celebrated for the great variety 
and beauty of the shells to be picked up on them, though this reputation is more of 
a past than a present kind. From the nature of the rocky shores of Serk, there is 
scarcely any seaweed to be obtained ; but the inhabitants have a privilege of gath- 
ering it on the shores of Herm, where it is to be obtained in great abundance. Jethou 
is smaller than Herm, but is a more picturesque object. It contains the proprietor's 
house*r«n excellent orchard, about a score of people, and a number of rabbits. 

Alderney has given name to the beautiful little cattle of the Channel islands, and 
of which their natives are so proud. Special laws both in Jersey and in Guernsey 
protect the purity of the breed. The importation of foreign cattle is strictly prohib- 
ited, under heavy penalties. 

Alderney is distant from Guernsey (northeast by north) about fifteen miles, or 
twenty from port to port ; from Jersey about thirty-three miles from coast to coast, 
and forty-five from port to port ; and about fifty-five or sixty miles south-by-east of 
Portland Bill, the nearest point of England. The communication with Guernsey is 
much more frequent and regular than with Jersey. Alderney possesses four vessels, 
the total burden of which is only one hundred and fifty tons. During the oyster sea- 
son some of them ply on the French coast ; but two, at least, run regularly to Guern- 
sey, paying a visit occasionally to Jersey. 

The island is about three miles and three fourths long, from northeast to south- 
west ; about one mile and three eighths broad ; and about eight miles in circuit. 
The southeast coast is formed by picturesque and lofty cliffs, from one to two hun- 
dred feet high: but as the island shelves toward the northeast, the coasts in that di- 
rection are of less elevation, and more indented with small bays, such as those of 
Longy or Catel (query, Chatel — Castle ?) bay on the east, and of Braye on the north- 
west. The last affords good anchorage, and near it is the only harbor in the island, 
that of Crabby, which, however, is fit for none but small vessels. The approach to 
the island is dangerous in bad weather, in consequence of the rapidity and diversity 
of the currents, and the rocks and islets which surround it in every direction. 

The "Race of Alderney" lies between the south end of the island and Cape La 
Hogue, the extremity of the Normandy peninsula. The width of the channel is 
about seven miles, and it affords sufficient depth of water for the largest ships ; but 
in stormy weather it is very dangerous. The " Swinge" is on the north side, between 
Alderney and another island called Berhou. Mr. Inglis, who visited Alderney from 
Guernsey, says : "The sun was setting before we entered the Swinge. As it got 
lower the boatmen tugged the harder at their oars, anxious, as they said, to make 
Alderney before dark — not on their account, but on mine ; for, supposing I had 
heard a good deal of the dangers of Alderney, they probably concluded that I was 
not perfectly at my ease, and they kept now and then repeating to me, in their own 
indifferent French. ' Monsieur, jour et nuit, c'est la meme chose pour nous' — [day 
and night, it is all the same for us 1 — that was to say, that they knew the navigation 
so well, that it signified nothing whether it was dark or light when they got into the 
Swinge. For my part, never having seen the Swinge, I felt no great dread of it; 
and it was so calm, and mild, and beautiful, that darkness seemed scarcely to have 
anything of terror in it. 

" Notwithstandir - all the exertions we made^it fell almost dark before we reached 
the coast ; and when we entered the Swinge there was just light enough to see that 
its dangers had not been exagerated. Suddenly, from the calmest water we were 
plunged into an ugly, plashy sea : dancing and breaking as if there were rocks not a 
foot from the surface. I was just able to see that in some places there were cur- 
rents like cataracts, and in others singular wide hollows and eddies, like whirlpools ; 
while at no great distance I could perceive the black heads of rocks, appearing and 
disappearing as the swell of the troubled sea rose and fell among them ; and still 
the boatmen continued their solitary sentence, 'jour et nuit, c'est la meme chose 
pour nous.' It soon became as dark as it is on any March moonless night ; but I 
felt secure in the knowledge and skill of the boatmen ; and about an hour after dark, 
something black and square and high appeared on our bow, which turned out to be 
the back of the harbor, which we soon after — but apparently with great straining at 
the oars — safely entered ; and from what the boatmen now told me, I had reason to 



THE ISLE OF GUERNSEY. 



89 




90 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

congratulate myself, not on an escape from danger, for I do not suppose there was 
any, but from considerable inconvenience. Owing to our protracted voyage, the tide 
had already began to turn ; and if we had been half an hour later, or had not been 
favored by a light breeze which sprang up when it fell dark, no efforts could have 
carried us into Alderney ; and we should have been obliged to have submitted to be 
carried again through the Swinge, and to have passed the night as we best could." 

The climate of Alderney is mild and healthy, though from its more northerly po- 
sition it is more exposed than the other islands to the northeast winds that sweep the 
channel ; " there is scarcely a rood of land throughout the island that is not exposed 
to every wind that blows ;" fogs, too, are not unfrequent. The soil is sandy, gritty, 
and gravelly, round the coast, but in the valleys it is very fertile, producing excellent 
corn and the best kind of potatoes, much superior to those of Jersey or Guernsey. In 
the meadows they grow rye-grass and clover, which give excellent milk and butter. 
The grass lands occupy about one third of the area of the island. The land is gen- 
erally elevated, but consists both of high and low tracts; a good supply of excellent 
water is procured in every part of the island. 



CHAPTER X. 
THE SCENERY OF WALES. 

Wales has already been described as a mountainous region, the chief peaks of 
which somewhat exceed 3,000 feet in height. It is visited by tourists from all parts 
of the kingdom, on account of the picturesque scenery with which it abounds, par- 
ticularly in the northern district or North Wales. Its hollows or vales contain none 
of those beautiful expanses of water which mix such softness with the grandeur of the 
Cumbrian scenery, but are traversed by impetuous rivers and torrents, according with 
the precipitous and savage character of the landscape. The vales of North Wales 
are deeper and narrower than those of South Wales ; these expand in many instan- 
ces into broad plains, affording scope for the operations of the agriculturist, and for 
the building of towns and villages. , 

Among the rivers of Wales, the Wye is celebrated for the beauty of its course, 
and the picturesque scenery presented by its banks. It takes its origin from the 
mountain of Plynlimmon, a mountain of South Wales, which is about 2,462 feet 
above the level of the sea, and situated on the verge of Cardiganshire and Montgom 
eryshire, and gives birth to five rivers, the most important of which is the Severn, 
and the most beautiful the Wye. The sources of the Severn and Wye (like the 
fountain-heads of those grander streams, the Danube and the Rhine) are close to each 
other, and, after pursuing opposite courses, their waters meet, and roll into the ocean 
together. 

For the beauty and variety of the scenery orf its banks, there is no river in Eng- 
land at all comparable with the Wye, nor do we believe, notwithstanding the supe- 
riority of some of them in point of size, that there is a single river on the continent 
of Europe that can boast such scenes of alternate grandeur, gracefulness, and pasto- 
ral beauty — such an uninterrupted chain of exquisite landscapes as occurs on the 
Wye all the way from Goodrich castle to Chepstow castle. 

It is only at a comparatively recent date that the Wye has become at all fre- 
quented on account of its scenery. About the middle of last century, Dr. John 
Egerton, who was afterward bishop of Durham, was collated by his father to the 
rectory of Ross, in which pleasant town, situated on the bank of the river, and just 
at the point where the beautiful scenery begins, the doctor resided for nearly thirty 
years, He was a man of taste, and had a lively enjoyment of the pleasures of soci- 
ety amid the beautiful scenery of his neighborhood. His chief delight was to invite 
his friends and connexions, who were persons of high rank, to pay him summer vis- 
its at Ross, and then to take them down the Wye, which river, the "Pleased Vaga 
echoing through its winding bounds," of the poet, as well as the town of Ross, had 



THE SCENERY OF WALES. 91 

derived an interest from the verses of Pope. To this end Dr. Egerton built a pleas 
ure-boat ; and year after year excursions were made, until it became fashionable to 
visit the Wye. The poet Gray, too, remarks: "My last summer tour was through 
Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire, Herefordshire, ana Shropshire, 
five of the most beautiful counties in the kingdom. The very principal light, and 
capital feature of my journey, was the river Wye, which I descended in a boat for 
nearly forty miles, from Ross to Chepstow. Its banks are a succession of nameless 
beauties." It may almost be said that the last happy moments Gray knew in this 
world were spent upon the Wye ; for a few months after we find him a prey to ill 
health and despondence, complaining of an incurable cough, of the irksomeness of 
his employment at Cambridge, and of " mechanical low spirits ;" and he died in the 
course of the following summer. 

Descending from the lofty sides of Plynlimmon, the Wye, at first an insignificant 
stream, flows on in a southerly direction, traversing the county of Radnor, which it 
divides from Brecon. For the first ten miles, or as far as Llangerrig, the country 
has little to recommend it, being naked and dreary, with brown peat-covered hills 
in the distance ; but from Llangerrig to Rhayader (a distance of twelve miles) the 
scenery is rather romantic, the river being flanked by bold rocks, and running over 
a declining irregular bed, in a succession of falls or rapids. At Rhayader, which is 
in itself a curious, romantic specimen of the small towns of Wales, the river com- 
mences to be very picturesque, and there is a fine view of it from the bridge at the 
entrance of the town, where it falls over a ledge of rocks and forms some deep and 
dark pools, after which it tears its way through white rocks and crags into a some- 
what open and spacious bed. Near to this spot the Wye receives two tributary 
streams — the Eilon and the Ython — which materially increase its importance ; and 
the whole of the valley between Rhayader and Bualth, or Builth, a distance of thir- 
teen miles, is singularly romantic. The road lies for the most part, close to the bed 
of the stream, and affords the most favorable views of the lofty banks, the rocky 
channel, and the winding, devious course of the river. At one point a grand mass, 
called the Black mountain, seems to choke up the vale and deny all passage to the 
Wye, which runs rapidly toward it ; but just as the river reaches the foot of the 
mountain, it turns toward the north, and, after opening an unexpected narrow pas- 
sage, it expands into a broad picturesque bay, a little above Bualth. From this old 
town, which is entered by crossing a long and rather rude stone bridge, the views of 
water, wood, mountains, and plain, are fine and extensive. The town itself has an 
essentially Welsh character ; and some of the most interesting events in Welsh his- 
tory took place in its neighborhood. It was here, on the left bank of the Wye, that 
the celebrated hero Llewellin was defeated and slain, in 1282, by the army of 
Edward I. 

The road from Bualth to Hay affords some fine prospects of the Wye, though it 
does not always lie near to the bed of that river. On approaching Hay the scenery 
loses much of its picturesque wildness — mountains and rocks begin to disappear, neat 
villas and country-houses occur frequently. The town of the Hay, or, as it is com- 
monly called, the Welsh Hay, is pleasantly situated, and is in part very picturesque. 
There is a tower with the gateway of an old castle finely covered with ivy, and, in 
the rear of the church, there are some slight vestiges of fortifications which are sup- 
posed to be Roman. A little below the Hay the Wye bends to the east, and enters 
the beautiful plains of Herefordshire with a slow and majestic pace. Having trav- 
elled sixty miles from its source in Plynlimmon, and received numerous tributary 
streams, it has here the appearance of an important river ; but the bed is broad and 
shallow, and no kind of vessel is seen upon it before reaching the city of Hereford. 
About two miles below the Hay, and close on the banks of the Wye, stands an old 
castle, partly surrounded by woods. This was the birthplace of the fair Rosamond, 
of whom the old chroniclers and poets made so much, and of whose real history so 
very little is known. The antique building is called Clifford castle, and forms a good 
feature in a very pleasing landscape. The whole valley of the Wye, from the Hay 
to Hereford, is highly cultivated and pretty, but devoid of grandeur. 

In the anciem city of Hereford, which has a singular air of tranquillity and of the 
olden times throughout, the tourist may spend a delightful hour or two in examining 
the fine Gothic cathedral. There are some pleasant promenades in the outskirts of 
the town, particularly one on a quay immediately above the Wye, which is here a 
quiet, stately river, as unlike as possible to the brawling mountain torrent which it 



08 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

is above Rhayader, or the foaming, impetuous stream it is above Bualth. About six 
miles below Hereford it receives the river Lug, and near the confluence of the two 
streams there is a curious elevation, called Marclay hill, which seems to have been 
thrust up by some convulsion of the earth, like the Monte Nuovo, in Italy, that sud- 
denly rose out of and almost entirely filled up the Lucrine lake. According to Cam- 
den, for three days together did Marclay hill " shove its prodigious body forward, 
with a horrible roaring noise, and, overturning everything in its way, raised itself, to 
the great astonishment of all beholders, to a higher place." In volcanic countries 
such phenomena are not rare, and sometimes, instead of protrusions and ascents, 
there are descents, which are equally curious. In the province of Apulia, in the 
kingdom of Naples, there is a hill that slid down into the plain, carrying with it, 
without much damage, a small town that stood on its summit. Even the church- 
tower, the highest building in the place was not overturned by the locomotion. 

Although the road only now and then affords a glimpse of "the Wye, all the coun- 
try between Hereford and Ross is varied by swelling hills, hop-grounds, orchards, 
and woods, and is lovely in the extreme. 

On entering the small quiet town of Ross, which is beautifully situated on an emi- 
nence close to the left bank of the Wye, everything reminds one of honest John 
Kyrle, whom Pope has immortalized, and the eye is attracted to the church and the 
"heaven-directed spire," to the trees he planted, to the causeway he laid down, and 
to the rest of his useful and honorable labors. Indeed, spending a day at this pleas- 
ant town is like spending a day with the " Man of Ross" himself, for we are re- 
minded of him whichever way we turn, and the inhabitants have most religiously 
cherished his memory, and all the little circumstances and anecdotes relating to him. 
Near to the decent, quiet inn where we staid, there stands the house he built him- 
self and inhabited ; and in the clubroom of another little inn in the town they pre- 
serve the good man's arm-chair. John Kyrle's fame was acquired by the judicious 
employment of a small fortune in works of public utility, and those works are fairly 
set down, and without exaggeration, in Pope's well-known and admirable lines, al- 
though, as Dr. Johnson observed, it is probable that his " five hundred pounds a-year" 
did not pay for all those improvements and charities, and that through his example, 
his known integrity, and active benevolence, his wealthier neighbors were, in some 
instances, induced to join their purses with his for the public good and the ornament 
of their town. 

In his time, the country round Ross, which in the twelfth century was a forest in- 
terspersed with marshes, and swarming with wild boars and wolves, was greatly 
wanting in trees, and Kyrle directed his energies to the supplying of this deficiency. 
He planted a vast number of elms in the churchyard and glebe, and in the rear of the 
church he laid out a beautiful avenue, which is called the " Prospect," or " The Man 
of Ross's Walk." It is on the ridge of a hill, and commands a fine view of the val- 
ley, and the river, and the hills beyond. It is said of him in King's "Anecdotes," 
that " he had a singular taste for prospects ; and by a vast plantation of elms, which 
he disposed of in a fine manner, he has made one of the most entertaining scenes the 
county of Hereford affords. Through the midst of the valley below runs the Wye, 
which seems in no hurry to leave the county ; but, like a hare that is unwilling to 
leave her habitation, makes a hundred turns and doubles." 

Within the church is still shown the pew where the good man sat for so many 
years, and which, out of respect to his memory, has never been altered or touched 
during the several alterations the church has since undergone. Two slight elm trees 
grow inside of the church, and indeed within the pew, partially curtaining with their 
foliage the tall arched window that opens upon it. The local legend is, that some 
years ago a rector impiously cut down some of John Kyrle's dear elms that stood in 
the churchyard, outside of the window, and opposite the pew, and that thereupon, as 
if determined to show their affection for their planter, some roots threw out fresh 
shoots, which, penetrating the church-wall, grew up over the very seat he used to 
occupy. The legend, at all events, is pretty, and there are the trees growing in the 
church, and their light green leaves gracefully extending over the pew, to answer for 
its veracity. The people who now show the interior of the church seem to regard 
the trees as miraculous and sacred objects, and they will probably be left to grow un- 
molested in the aisle, until their size becomes inconvenient and requires trimming. 

In Pope's time, John Kyrle lay "without a monument, inscription stone ;" but in 
1776, Lady Betty Duplin left a sum of money for the purpose, axd his name is now 



THE SCENERY OF WALES. 93 

recorded in a simple inscription, but in gold letters, on a marble tablet, over which 
is placed that other doubtful adjunct of monumental fame, a tolerably "bad bust." 
The memory of honest John did not require these things to preserve it, but they will 
do it no harm, and they proceeded from laudable motives. 

In the corner of the churchyard there is a curious old stone cross, commemorating 
the ravages of the plague — that fearful disorder from which all have been so long 
exempt. 

A little below the town of Ross, on the right bank of the river, stand the ruins of 
Wilton castle, the history or name of whose baronial founders we forget or overlook 
in our respect for a remarkable man who once held possession of it, and who left it, 
with the rich estates adjoining, to a public charity of the best kind. This man was 
Thomas Guy, the founder of Guy's hospital, in London. The estate of Wilton cas- 
tle was left by him to that establishment. 

A few yards lower down, the Wye passes under Wilton bridge, the arches and 
piers of which are of curious construction, and were first built at the end of the six- 
teenth century. So far, and indeed for a mile or two farther, the scenery of the Wye, 
including the view of Ross, with its steeple, its terraces, and trees, is only pretty and 
graceful ; but, on approaching Goodrich castle, it becomes bolder and grander. On 
either side, the banks begin to rise into lofty precipices, or wooded hills, of the no- 
blest forms; and the sudden turns and windings of the stream, every minute bring 
unexpected and startling objects in sight, and give a new aspect and character to the 
features of the scene already passed. At the very point where a massy ivy-covered 
ruin and an antique-looking castellated building are most desirable, we find the ruin? 
of Goodrich castle, and — that admirable imitation of the antique — the mansion of 
Sir Samuel Meyrick, called Goodrich court. As we approach this point, which i? 
about four miles below Ross, the river expands, and forms a sort of bay ; and on the 
right bank, on a lofty-wooded eminence, which projects as a promontory, stand the 
ruins and the mansion. 

The ascent to the old castle, from the bed of the river, is steep ; but the path lies, 
for the best part, through a pleasant wood, and every resting-place offers a delightful 
view. The castle itself presents grand and imposing masses of masonry of different 
periods of architecture. The keep, which is the most ancient part, is in the Saxon 
style ; but there are evident signs of alterations and improvements of a much later 
age ; and in other parts of the building, which seems to have been successively en- 
larged, we trace the Tudor style. The history of the place is not well preserved , 
but there was a castle here (consisting probably of the keep and little else) before the 
Norman -conquest, and the last additions to it should seem to have been made in 
the time of Henry VII. During the great civil war, it was the scene of desperate 
contention. It was occupied in the first instance for the parliament, but was after- 
ward seized and garrisoned for Charles I. by Sir Richard Lingen. It was retaken 
by the parliamentarians uncrer Colonel Birch, after some hard fighting, at the begin- 
ning of August, 1646, being the last castle in England, with the exception of Pen- 
dennis, that held out for tha king. During the siege, it suffered considerably from 
the mortar-pieces, granadoes, and "the great iron culverin" of the assailants, and, in 
the month of March following, it was ordered by parliament, " that Goodrich castle 
should be totally disgarrisoned and slighted" (that is, destroyed). From the im- 
mense, and in some parts almost perfect, masses that remain, we may judge that the 
people employed on this work of destruction were sparing of their labor and gun- 
powder ; and we are hapny that it should have been so, as they have left us a fine 
ruin — just ruined enough to be picturesque, and sufficiently entire to attract and grat- 
ify curiosity in the examination of its arrangement and details. Whether seen from 
the water below, or from the hillside, being taken in connexion with the river, the 
woods, and the rocks, it Is a beautiful object. From the battlements of one of the 
towers there is a glorious view. 

The winding river now leads through scenes of constantly changing and increasing 
beauty and magnificence. For some time Goodrich castle remains a prominent 
feature in the landscape,, for the Wye here makes a remarkably bold sweep, going 
completely round the wooded headland, and returning, as it were, upon the castle in 
another direction. AnovW sudden turn brings full in view the magnificent forest of 
Dean, and the romantic ir»ire of Ruer-Dean church rising among the trees. Here 
both banks are lofty andnhVep, and both woody ; but the woods on the left bank are 
intermingled with rockse. Villages in the most beautiful situations, rural churches, 



94 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




THE SCENERY OF WALES. 95 

and scattered cottages, now begin to peep more frequently from the hills upon the 
river that reflects and multiplies them. 

Two miles below Welsh Bicknor, on the left bank of the Wye, and in Gloucester- 
shire, there is another village, called English Bicknor, and near to that point the 
sublime rocks of Coldwell present themselves with wonderful effect. There the river 
forms a beautiful little bay, and passengers can land on some rocks and greensward, 
and contemplate at their leisure a scene which we have seldom seen surpassed, and 
which is called " the first grand scene on the Wye." Our engraving will give 
some notion, however imperfect, of this remarkable spot. Continuing the navigation, 
we come to Hunt's Holm Roye, where a picturesque parish church stands on the 
river's brink. On account of the tortuous course of. the river, this place, which is 
only one mile from Goodrich by land, is rather more than seven by water. The 
cheerful village of Whitechurch, backed by the bold hills called the Great and Little 
Doward is next seen, and passing other spots and objects of beauty too numerous 
even to name, we next come to Symond's Yat and the New Wen, which is generally 
called "the second grand scene on the Wye." At Symond's Yat we landed and 
climbed up a towering rocky promontory of great height, which (while seen from 
below, it is one of the grandest objects met with) affords the finest of all the views 
of the mazes of the Wye, and a magnificent landward prospect over the counties of 
Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Monmouthshire. Here the turrets of Goodrich, 
from which we had been wandering so long, again showed themselves. At our feet, 
on the shelving banks of the river far below us, are some iron forges and limekilns, 
the ascending smoke of which produced a singular effect, which we might almost 
call solemn. 

Descending from this grand height, we come to the New Weir, where the river 
assumed another character. Hitherto it has moved with a tolerably slow, quiet pace, 
but here it roars and foams over a bed of rocks, and becomes for some hundreds of 
yards a rapid, or a succession of little falls. The scenery, particularly on the left 
bank, assumes its grandest characters. These are craggy and weather-beaten walls 
of sandstone, of gigantic dimension, perpendicular or overhanging, projecting abruptly 
from amid oaks, and hung with rich festoons of ivy. The rain and storms of ages 
have beaten and washed them into such fantastic forms, that they appear like some 
caprice of human art. Castles and towers, amphitheatres and fortifications, battle- 
ments and obelisks, mock the wanderer, who fancies himself transported into the 
ruins of a city of some extinct race. Some of these picturesque masses are at times 
loosened by the action of the weather, and fall thundering from rock to rock, with a 
terrific plunge into the river. 

During the latter half of the trip from Symond's Yat to Monmouth, rocks and sub- 
limity give place to more gentle declivities, and to mild beauties that partake of the 
pastoral character. Cattle are sprinkled on green ledges above the river: in some 
places the meadow shelves down to the brink, allowing the cows to stand and cool 
themselves in the stream, and flocks of white sheep lend beauty and poetry to the 
middle distance. The whole valley of the river moreover opens, the hills recede, 
and the river makes longer reaches. 

Monmouth, "the delight of the eye, and thevery seat of pleasure," stands near 
the conflux of the Monnow with the Wye, on a gently rising ground, that throws 
out the houses like the seats of an amphitheatre, and gives a fine elevated platform 
for the church with its tall steeple. It is surrounded by smiling declivities and gently- 
swelling hills, that are mostly covered from the water's edge to the summit, with 
pleasant little woods, or laid out in corn-fields or pasture-meadows. The interior of 
picturesque towns is not always the most comfortable. Monmouth, however, has a 
broad and handsome street, a capacious market-place, and seems clean and neat 
throughout. The remains of the priory, with an apartment they pretend was the 
study of that splendid romancer Geoffrey of Monmouth, the old Saxon church of St. 
Thomas, near the Monnow bridge, and particularly the low, sombre, round-arched 
interior of that church, will agreeably occupy an hour or two within the town. 

From the summit of the Kymin rock, which rises on the left bank of the Wye, 
and is situated partly in Monmouthshire and partly in Gloucestershire, there is another 
extensive and beautiful view, of a totally different character from that obtained on 
Symond's Yat. This variety, indeed, is one of the great charms of the Wye. From 
Ross to the river's mouth, the character of the scenery is scarcely ever the same 
for a quarter of a mile. On the centre of the Kymin, overhanging the town of 



96 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




THE SCENERY OF WALES. 97 

Monmouth and the river, there is a circular pavilion, like an embattled tower, which 
is made easy of access by means of a walk which winds gently up the acclivity. 

A little below the town, the Monnow flows into the Wye with a full stream. For 
some distance the banks are low, and fine green meadows shelve from the hills to 
theTvater-side ; and then the banks again become bold, rocks protrude, and woods 
appear on either side. Troy house, with a solemn forest near it, the romantic church 
of Penalt, the scattered village of Red-brook, with its iron-forges and its tin-works, 
White-brook, with its paper-mills, Pen-y-van Hill, Big's Weir-house, with the 
church and the ruins of the castle of St. Briaval in the distance, are among the 
beautiful features of this changing picture. In some parts the bed of the river is 
roughened and straitened by shelves and projecting rocks, which produce ripples, 
and, here and there, miniature falls and rapids. A barge or two, making their way 
against the stream, had to tack and manoeuvre in a curious manner. In several places 
these shelves of rock lie right across the river, like artificial weirs, having very little 
water over them. At Big's Weir, where the current is very rapid, the river eddies 
over fragments of rock, which leave only a narrow open space for the passage of 
boats. Near to this place, a new and very graceful bridge, called Big's Weir- 
bridge, spans the river with a single arch. The road from Chepstow to Monmouth, 
which runs partly on one side of the river, aDd partly on the other, is connected by 
this bridge. From this point a fine bold reach, with Tiddenham-chase hill rising 
nobly in front, leads to the lovely hamlet of Landogo, which is situated on a small 
plain on the right bank, tufted with woods, and backed by an amphitheatre of lofty 
hills. The little church peeps out beautifully from amid the trees upon the river, 
which there forms a smooth and capacious bay. Taken altogether, this is one of 
the prettiest scenes upon the Wye. 

Below this point the Wye becomes a tide-river, and loses one of its great beauties, 
which is the purity and transparency of its waters. 

A little farther, on the left bank of the river, the populous village of Brook's Weir 
presents a scene where utility unites with beauty. A number of, white, comfortable- 
looking cottages, and elegant little villas, scattered about the hills in the neighborhood, 
prove the prosperity of the place. Soon after passing Brook's Weir, you round the 
point of Lyn Weir, and then, at the end of the reach, one sees the glorious ruins of 
Tintern abbey, and the white-walled village of Tintern, partially embosomed in 
trees and backed by beautifully-shaped hills, wooded to their summits. Had the 
Wye nothing else to boast of than Tintern abbey and Chepstow castle, which the 
German tourist declares to be " the most beautiful ruins in the world," it ought to 
attract travellers from far and near. 

From the length of the nave, the height of the walls, the aspiring form of the 
pointed arches, and the size of the east window, which closes the perspective, the 
first impressions are those of grandeur and sublimity. But as these emotions sub- 
side, and we descend from the contemplation of the whole to the examination of the 
parts, we are no less struck with the regularity of the plan, the lightness of the ar- 
chitecture, and the delicacy of the ornaments: we feel that elegance is its charac- 
teristic, no less than grandeur, and that the whole is a combination of the beautiful 
and the sublime. 

The church was constructed in the shape of a cathedral, and is an excellent spe- 
cimen of Gothic architecture in its greatest purity. The roof is fallen in, and the 
whole ruin is open to the sky, but the shell is entire, and the pillars are standing, 
except those which divided the nave from the northern aisle, and their situation is 
marked by the remains of the bases. The four lofty arches which supported the 
tower, spring high in the air, reduced to narrow rims of stone, yet still preserving 
their original form. The arches and pillars of the choir and transept are complete ; 
the shapes of all the windows may be still discriminated, and the frame of the west 
window is in perfect preservation ; the design of the tracery is extremely elegant, 
and when decorated with painted glass, must have produced a fine effect. Critics 
who censure this window as too broad for its height, do not consider that it was not 
intended Yor a particular object, but to harmonize with the general plan ; and had 
the architect diminished the breadth, in proportion to the height, tl e grand effect of 
the perspective would have been considerably lessened. 

The general form of the east window is entire, but the frame is much dilapidated ; 
it occupies the whole breadth of the choir, and is divided into twc large and equal 
compartments, by a slender shaft, not less than fifty feet in heigh t, which has an 

7 



08 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




THE SCENERY OF WALES. 99 

appearance of singular lightness, and in particular points of view seems suspended 
in the air. 

Nature nas added her ornaments to the decorations of art ; some of the windows 
are wholly obscured, others partially shaded with tufts of ivy, or edged with lighter 
foliage ; the tendrils creep along the walls, wind round the pillars, wreathe the cap- 
itals, or hanging down in clusters, obscure the space beneath. 

Instead of dilapidated fragments, overspread with weeds and choked with bram- 
bles, the floor is covered with a smooth turf, which, by keeping the original level of 
the church, exhibits the beauty of its proportions, heightens the effect of the gray 
stone, gives a relief to the clustered pillars, and affords an easy access to every part. 
Ornamented fragments of the roof, remains of cornices and columns, rich pieces of 
sculpture, sepulchral stones, and mutilated figures of monks and heroes, whose ashes 
repose within these walls, are scattered on the green sward, and contrast present 
desolation with former splendor. 

Although the exterior appearance of the ruins is not equal to the inside view, yet 
in some positions, particularly to the east, they present themselves with considerable 
effect. By crossing the ferry, and walking down the stream about half a mile, the 
ruins assume a new character, and seem to ocr ipy a gentle eminence, and impend 
over the river, without the intervention of a single cottage to obstruct the view. 
The grand east window, wholly covered with shrubs, and half mantled with ivy, 
rises like the portal of a majestic edifice, embowered in wood. Through this open- 
ing, and along the vista of the church, the clusters of ivy, which twine round the 
pillars, or hang suspended from the arches, resemble tufts of trees ; while the thick 
mantle of foliage, seen through the tracery of the west window, forms a continua- 
tion of the perspective, and appears like an interminable forest. 

A little below Tintern, you come upon Banagor crags, a long, lofty, perpendicular, 
and most sublime rampart, bare as a wall except where a few shrubs shoot out, op- 
posite to which the river is skirted by narrow slips of rich pasture, rising into wooded 
acclivities, on which abruptly towers the Wyndcliff, a nearly perpendicular mass of 
rock, rudely overhung with thickets, stated to be 800 feet high. At this place the 
Wye turns suddenly round the fertile, smiling peninsula of Lancaut, having the stu- 
pendous amphitheatre of Piercefield cliffs on the right bank. The little penin- 
sula, sloping down from Tiddenham chase, ends in pleasant meadows and flats, 
where a few cottages and a church show themselves. The opposite cliffs start up 
from the water's edge, looking like enormous buttresses, and here and there throw- 
ing out bold, fantastic projections. Twelve of these projecting rocks have been 
christened by the country people, " the Twelve Apostles," and a thirteenth, which 
points toward the sky, and has a rude resemblance in shape to a thumb, they call 
" St. Peter's Thumb." The summit and edge of these cliffs are fringed with the 
noble woods and plantations of Piercefield ; and as we passed them, approaching 
evening had shed the most beautiful harmonizing shades and hues on their rough 
sides. Presently the river again turns, and then the grand ruins of Chepstow castle, 
rising from the very edge of lofty precipices, the bridge, and part of the picturesque 
town of Chepstow, present themselves in almost magical combination. The ruins 
look more like the remains of a city than of a single castle, and under certain lights, 
the eye looking upward from the river does not readily distinguish them from the 
cliffs on which they stand, or perceive where the rocks end and the walls begin. 

The venerable castle loses little of its sublimity on a near view, as its towers, 
though " decayed and rent," are still lofty, and its frowning walls and battlements 
in some parts almost entire. 

The Romans are supposed to have had a fortress at this commanding point, but 
nothing of their work, except some of their excellent bricks, built up in the chapel 
walls, and one or two other walls of the castle, is now visible. The edifice is 
generally attributed to the Normans, who built it at the end of the eleventh, and 
improved and enlarged it in the thirteenth century. The styles of successive eras 
of architecture are visible in different parts of the extensive building, in the windows 
and doorways, and various accessories, which were added from time to time. In the 
low, rounded arches, we were reminded of the Saxon and early Norman style. The 
castle stands in an irregular parallelogram, having the perpendicular cliffs on one 
side, and a deep moat, with massive walls flanked with toAvers, on the other sides 
The area occupies a very large tract of ground, and is divided into four courts. The 
grand entrance to the east is a circular arch between two round towers, and this 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES 




THE SCENERY OF WALES. 101 

leads into the first court, which contains the shells of the grand hall, kitchen, and 
many spacious apartments, retaining a few melancholy vestiges of baronial splen- 
dor. A few of these rooms are still inhabited, and the construction of their old 
chimneys is worthy of attention ; they are handsomely decorated on the outside, and 
the inside is glazed, which prevents the accumulation of soot. 

At the southeastern angle of the first court, the round tower, which was formerlv 
the keep, is now always called Harry Marten's tower, from the circumstance of that 
old republican having passed twenty years of captivity in it. At the western side of 
the court, near a round tower called the old kitchen, a gate gives access to the sec- 
ond court (now a garden, with pleasant trees in it), at the opposite side of which, 
another gateway leads into the third court, and to a graceful, but roofless and half- 
ruined building, commonly called the chapel, wherein, though somewhat mixed up 
with the old Norman, the fine Gothic style of a later period is beautifully prominent. 
A staircase ascends from one corner of this court to the battlements and towers, 
whence a fine view is obtained of the Wye, and part of the estuary of the Severn. 
A sallyport opens into the fourth or last court, which is the smallest of the four, but 
shut in by a fine old tower, through which was the western entrance to the castle. 
The interior of these extensive ruins presents some grand, and several beautiful com- 
binations. Ivy and delicately-colored wild flowers profusely decorate the walls, and 
as we walked along the battlements under a bright, cheerful sun, the whole scene 
was rather gentle and agreeable than gloomy and awful. 

We shall now proceed to notice some other remarkable places in Wales. The 
river Taff presents in its course many spots of great interest and of picturesque beau- 
ty. For about six miles below Merthyr, the vale of Taff is straight, bare, and dull ; 
the more because its mountain stream, which would in its natural state impart beauty 
and cheerfulness, is drained and polluted by the operations of the mines. We then 
come to that remarkable and most picturesque bend in the river, called (after an old 
burying-ground) Quaker's yard. Hence to that grand ravine overhung by the Garth 
hill, where the Taff issues into the level country, its whole course is varied, pictu- 
resque, and richly wooded. A ruined fortress, called Castle Coch, formerly com- 
manded the pass, and still adds dignity to the landscape. Halfway from Merthyr 
to Cardiff, a distance of twenty-four miles, is the remarkable structure called New 
Bridge (in Welsh Pont y Pridd), a single arch spanning the rapid current of the Taff, 
of one hundred and forty feet span and thirty-five in height (see engraving). It was 
completed in 1755, by a self-taught country mason, William Edwards. Having ob- 
tained credit by his manual skill, and by the ability which he had shown in executing 
some buildings rather above the common country-work, he undertook, in 1746, at the 
age of twenty-seven, the bold task of building a bridge over the Taff, at a spot where 
the river is broad and the banks low. He completed a very light and elegant struc- 
ture in three arches, which obtained much admiration, and gave security that it 
should stand for seven years. All mountain rivers are subject to heavy floods, and 
the Taff in rather an unusual degree. Within three years of the completion of the 
bridge, a flood occurred of extraordinary height, which carried down trees, hay, &c, 
before it in such quantities, that they were caught by the piers and formed a dam ; 
behind which the water accumulated to such a height that the bridge at last gave 
way under its pressure. Edwards then conceived the bold design of spanning the 
river with a single arch, of the present dimensions, and completed it. But the low- 
ness of the approaches, and the want of natural abutments of firm rock, rendered it 
necessary to load the spring of the arch on either side with a great mass of masonry ; 
and, before the parapets were finished, the pressure on the haunches drove up the 
crown of the arch, and it fell in. Unshaken in courage, he renewed the attempt 
upon the same scale, but lightened the masonry by perforating it with three cylin- 
drical tunnels, nine, six, and three feet in diameter. This expedient succeeded : the 
bridge has stood unshaken since 1755, and the cylindrical apertures have given, not 
only stability, but also an air of great lightness and elegance to the structure. It is 
commonly said, that, up to this time, the largest stone arch in the world was that of 
the Rialto, at Venice, ninety-eight feet in span. It appears, however, that one of 
the arches of the bridge of Narni, a Roman work, is one hundred and forty-two feet, 
and an old bridge over the Allier, in the department of Haute Loire, in France, one 
hundred and eighty-one feet wide. 

A few miles southeast of the bridge, in a deep valley, is Caerphilly, celebrated for 
its castle ; the most extensive and one of the grandest ruins in Britain. The great 



102 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




THE SCENERY OF WALES. 



103 



gateway, flanked by two enormous circular towers, and the hall, an elegant Gothic 
room seventy feet by thirty, are in the best preservation ; but the walls with their 
vaulted corridors yet stand, and may still be traversed to a considerable extent. The 
"Leaning Tower" is a shattered fragment of a round tower. Above, near half the 
circumference still remains ; below, it seems to rest on a small portion of its base. 




The Leaning Tower of Caerphilly. 

It hangs eleven and one half feet out of the perpendicular, and is reported to be be- 
tween seventy and eighty feet high. This castle is of very ancient date. In the reign 
of Edward II., it belonged to his favorites, the Spencers, and endured a long siege 
from the revolted barons. An explosion, caused by throwing water upon iron melted 
in a furnace at the base, is said to have reduced the leaning tower to its present state. 
It is difficult to conceive how any wall, so convulsed, could remain in its present po- 
sition ; yet, on the whole, this perhaps is as plausible an explanation as has been 
given of this singular appearance. The immense blocks of shattered masonry which 
still cumber the interior indicate a violent ruin, and show the excellence of the an- 
cient cement. 

The wild-looking chain of hills, which, extending from the estuary of the Mawe 
to that of the Dwyryd, separating this elevated mountain plain from the sea, contains 
many hidden beauties ; but these are to be sought entirely on the western declivity. 
The southern portion of this tract, nearest to Barmouth, has already been spoken of; 
but its most remarkable scenery is to be found in two contiguous passes, from Har- 
lech inland, which run parallel, and within two miles perhaps of direct distance from 



104 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

each other. The southernmost is called Drws Ardudwy (the door or pass of the land 
by sea). This hollow, seen from the east, has indeed the appearance of a vast portal 
cleft in the hill, and by its size and singular appearance is distinctly recognised from 
the summit of Cader Idris. The ill-tracked way which leads through this pass quits 
the Tan y Bwlch road about eight miles from Dolgelle, apparently just in front ot 
the opening, and hard by a good-sized stream, which seems to issue from it. .Many 
parts of the level moor are boggy, and it is not very easy to distinguish the proper 
track. On reaching the hillside we meet a hard path, said to be a Roman road lead- 
ing inland from Harlech. An hour and a quarter, or rather more, will be sufficient 
to attain the head of the pass, which is on a very large scale, dark and stern, almost 
uncheered by vegetation, and abundantly bestrown with the shattered fragments of 
its impending rocks. Few scenes in Wales surpass it in the grandeur of desolation ; 
of the gentler beauties it has none. But these appear as soon as we clear the close 
defile in proceeding toward Harlech : the valley widens and becomes more fertile ; 
and the latter part of the way, as seen under the misty light of a summer moon, is 
of great beauty. 

There are many British remains round Harlech — cromlechs, pillar-stones, and cir- 
cles — some of which may easily be seen in the way to or from Drws Ardudwy, or 
Cwm Bychan. To ascend the latter valley, it is necessary to return some distance 
south of Harlech. It is well worth while to do so, for there are few spots in the 
whole of Wales which unite wildness with great loveliness in so remarkable a de- 
gree. The earlier part of the walk from Harlech lies through a pleasant open country. 
Near the entrance of the glen itself there is a tarn, called Llyn Cwm Bychan, a beau- 
tiful piece of water, from the edge of which rises the steep, black rock called Carreg 
y Saeth (the rock of the arrow). Proceeding from this spot, which commands a most 
exquisite view of the whole glen, we soon pass the lake, and arrive at the beginning 
of the steep ascent which leads to Bwlch Tyddiad, the pass over the hills toward 
Trawsfynnydd. From the head of the lake to the top of the pass, will occupy an 
hour or more of hard walking. After ascending a good way, in passing through a 
gate in a stone-wall, we come on what is little expected in this wild place, a road, 
and that of very singular construction. It is a narrow foot or horse path, not above 
a yard wide, made of broad flat stones, laid so as to form regular steps where the 
ascent is steep, and bordered by pieces laid edgewise to form a curbstone. This, like 
the one on the hillside near Drws Ardudwy, is believed to be of Roman construction, 
leading inland from the station at Harlech, but it is in far better preservation, being 
indeed so perfect in many places, and for considerable distances, that it is hardly 
possible to believe fifteen centuries to have elapsed since the empire of those who 
made it passed away. There is no such vast chasm here as in the neighboring pass: 
the mountain range is crossed nearly at its full height ; the character, therefore, of 
the ascent is altogether different. It lies up a light and cheerful hillside, with fre- 
quent views over the lovely vale which we have quitted, richly clothed with heather 
and other native mountain plants, and varied by startling crags, which increase in 
height and grandeur as we near the summit. Here also the character is different ; 
instead of being enclosed in a gloomy hollow, we are on the mountain-top, with the 
free mountain air blowing delightfully over us, and an extensive and magnificent 
view, bounded on all sides by the loftiest hills in Wales, from Snowdon on the north, 
round by the Arennigs and Arrans to Cader Idris on the south. But all beauty ceases 
when we have descended but a short way on the eastern side, and the path across 
the plain toward Trawsfynnydd is wearisome and rather hard to find. From the 
summit to the Dolgelle road, about two miles from the village, will take near an 
hour and a half. The whole distance from Harlech by this circuitous route may 
perhaps be sixteen or seventeen miles, and Tan y Bwlch is six miles farther ; by the 
coast road it is but ten miles. 

Mr. Pennant, who visited this spot about 1780, has given a pleasant account of the 
life of a retired Welsh country gentleman of that day, which is worth quoting, as the 
description of a class of persons and manners now extinct. He says : — 

" I was tempted by my fellow-traveller to visit a near relation of his in his ancient 
territories of Cwm Bychan — the venerable Evan Llwyd, who. with his ancestors, 
boast of being lords of these rocks at least since the year 1100. The worthy repre- 
sentative of this long line gave me the most hospitable reception, and in the style of 
an ancient Briton. He welcomed us with ale and potent beer, to wash down the 
Coch yr Wden, or hung goat, and the cheese, compounded of the milk of the cow 



THE SCENERY OF WALES. 105 

and sheep. The family lay in their whole store of winter provisions, heing inacces- 
sible a great part of the season by reason of snow. Here they have lived for many 
generations without bettering or lessening their income — without noisy fame, but 
without any of its embittering attendants. 

" The mansion is a true specimen of an ancient seat of a gentleman of Wales. 
The furniture rude : the most remarkable were the great oatmeal chests, which held 
the essential part of the provisions. 

" The territories dependant on the mansion extend about four miles each way, and 
consist of a small tract of meadow, a pretty lake swarming with trout, a little wood, 
and very much rock ; but the whole forms a most august scenery. The naked 
mountains envelop his vale and lake, like an immense theatre. The meadows are 
divided by a small stream, and are bounded on one side by the lake, on the other by 
his woods, which skirt the foot of the rocks, and through which the river runs, and 
beyond them tumbles from the heights in a series of cataracts. He keeps his whole 
territories in his own hands, but distributes his hinds among the Havadwys, or sum- 
mer dairy-houses (like the Swiss chalets in the upper hills), for the conveniency of 
attending his flocks and herds. His ambition once led him to attempt draining his 
lake, in order to extend his landed property ; but alas ! he only gained a few acres 
of rushes and reeds ; so wisely bounded his desires, and saved a beautiful piece of 
water. Stools and roots of firs of vast size are frequently found near the lake. 

" Among the mountains which guard the Cwm is one called Carreg y Saeth, on 
whose verge is a great Maen Hir and Carnedd. Saeth signifies an arrow : so prob- 
ably the ancient sportsmen here took their stand to watch the passing of the deer, 
which formerly abounded in these parts. Nor have they long been extinct. A per- 
son of the last generation informed my host, that he had seen eighteen at once 
grazing in the meadow." 

The road from Harlech to Tan y Bwlch is very pleasant. Half way we pass two 
small pools, Llyn Tecwyn isa (lower), and Llyn Tecwyn ucha (upper). Pennant 
describes the former as being filled with water-lilies, and says that the crags of shiv- 
ering slate which overhang the latter were enlivened by flocks of milk-white goats. 
These ancient denizens of the country are now scarcely ever to be seen. About a 
mile farther, and the same distance from Maentwrog, is Pont Velin-rhyd (the bridge 
of the yellow ford). This stream issues from a dark narrow valley, and forms two 
fine cascades, the highest of which may be distant perhaps one mile and a half from 
the road : it is called Rhaiadr Du (the black fall), a name which hardly expresses 
its character ; for it is light, cheerful, and elegant. The height is considerable, but 
the stream curves in its descent, so that it is difficult to command a view of the 
whole at once : it is received into a large basin, with richly-wooded sides. The 
lower, called the Raven fall, is closer, and of sterner character. Maentwrog lies 
about a mile and a half farther. This village has its name from the stone of Twrog, 
a British saint of the seventh century, which stands in the churchyard at the north- 
west corner of the church. 

The beauties of the vale of Festiniog have been celebrated by all tourists, from 
Lord Lyttleton downward. It is indeed a lovely spot, well watered, richly wooded, 
and of varied surface, with enough of majesty and wildness in the mountain summits 
which bound the view, to enhance the value of the softness and fertility, hv which 
this excels perhaps every other of the Welsh valleys. The village of Festiniog lies 
three miles or more from the head of the estuarv, and affords a more central halting 
place than Tan y Bwlch. About half a mile from the inn are the falls of the Cyn- 
fael — the lower about forty feet in height, where the river rushes in a broad stream 
over a shelving rock ; the upper, more extensive and of grander character, is broken 
into three steps, and darkly shadowed by overhanging trees. The rocky scenery of 
the river is very fine. Between the falls is a columnar crag, called Hugh Lloyd's 
pulpit, because a worthy of that name took advantage of this impregnable position 
in the middle of running waters, to preach a sermon to the devil. Under Moelwyn, 
to the north of the valley, lies a wild mountain glen, Cwm Morthin, well deserving 
of a visit, and the hills may be crossed to Pont Aberglaslyn from the head of the val- 
ley. Pennant, who took this line on horseback, speaks of the path as unusually haz- 
ardous, but there can be no difficulty on foot. East of Festiniog, on the road tow- 
ard Yspytty Evan, Mr. Roscoe mentions a glen and fall called Rhaiadr Cwm, a wild 
cataract descending from the upland regions in a dark ravine, by many successive 
leaps. It must be a grand specimen of the ruder sort of landscape, if the pencil of 



106 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




Hngh Lloyd's Pulpit. 

his artist has not exagerated its features. The roads which cross the mountain tract 
toward Llanrwst and Bala have been noticed already. 

West of Tan y Bwlch inn, on a lofty eminence, stands Tan y Bwlch hall, situated 
among - extensive woods and in beautiful grounds, which, by the obliging permission 
of the proprietor, may be conveniently visited on the way to Beddgelert. Rhododen- 
drons and other exotics here attain to unusual size and beauty. Two miles from 
Beddgelert, at Pont Aberglaslyn, we pass into Caernarvonshire, and enter a defile, 
which has neither companion nor rival in any part of the island : the refusal of the 
Hessian auxiliaries to enter the pass of Killicrankie, would have been quite as natu- 
ral, or even more so, here. The hills which environ the vale of BeddfTelert are cleft 
down seven or eight hundred feet, nearly to the tide level, just leaving room for the 
clear and powerful stream, along the bank of Avhich a road has been formed, with 
great labor in the mountain side. Dark, steep, and craggy, with hardly the appear- 
ance of vegetation, a scene more impressive, especially in the gloom of evening, can 
rarely be found. Along the western bank of the river is continued the road toward 
Tremadoc and Harlech, across the estuary of Traeth Mawr. The former town is 
of recent origin, situated on land reclaimed from the sea, and below the level of high- 
water : it takes its name from its founder, the late Mr. Madocks, a gentleman of 
fortune in this neighborhood, who carried into the effect the idea, proposed even so 
far back as 1625, of embanking these two estuaries, and recovering a vast tract of 
fruitful land from the sea. It is stated by Mr. Roscoe that 9,000 acres have been 
thus redeemed from the sea, of which 5,000 are brought into cultivation. And in 
place of the former dangerous and inconvenient route across the sands, where the 
unwary traveller was liable to be surprised by the tides, which flow with great ra- 
pidity, the embankment forms a safe and short communication for horse or foot pas- 
sengers between the neighborhood of Harlech and the coast of Caernarvonshire. To 
those who wish to visit the promontory of Llyn, as that remarkable horn is called, 
which projects in a circular sweep between the bays of Cardigan and Caernarvon, 
the best route is by Penmorfa and Crickeith. There is little, however, to attract the 
traveller toward this division of the country, either in natural scenery or architectural 
antiquities, though the isle of Bardsey, lying off the extreme point, contained a mon- 
astery of great reputed sanctity, and once boasted the graves of 20,000 saints. 

From Beddgelert to Caernarvon (twelve miles) the road is far less interesting. It 
ascends Nant Colwyn, passes at a considerable height over the western range of 



THE SCENERY OF WALES 




108 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



Snowdon, and descends by Llyn Cywellyn and the stream which issues therefrom. 
After passing Llyn y Cader, a small pool about three miles on the way, a hill-road 
to the left leads to the Nantlle pools, from which Wilson's celebrated picture of 
Snowdon was taken. They lie at some distance, but it may be worth while for the 
pedestrian to diverge from the high road for a mile or more, to the head of the pass, 
whence a fine view of these small lakes, and of the country beyond them, may be 
had. Llyn Cywellyn is a large piece of water, grandly surmounted by the heights 
of Snowdon. The first portion of the descent, for about a mile, is striking ; after- 
ward the road is dull, until we reach the neighborhood of Caernarvon. 




View of Snowdon, from Llanberis. 



This town stands on the right bank of the river Seiont, which issues from the 
lakes of Llanberis. It is well paved and lighted, and in appearance and conve- 
nience superior to most Welsh towns. It is of considerable resort as a bathing-place. 
The ancient walls and gates are still remaining. The noble castle, built by Edward 
I., is the wonder of the place. It occupies a space of more than six acres, on the 
west side of the town, on the verge of the Menai, or rather of the estuary of the 
Seiont. Its lofty walls are strengthened with octagonal towers, of which the most 
remarkable is the Eagle tower, so called from a stone figure on the battlements, 
which is believed to be of Roman workmanship, brought from the neighboring sta- 
tion of Segontium. A small apartment, measuring only about twelve feet by eight, 
is still shown at Caernarvon castle, as that in which Edward II. first saw the light. 
It is in the Eagle tower, and can only be entered by a door raised high above the 
ground, and the ascent to which is over a drawbridge. There is a fireplace in the 
room, but it must have been, in its best days, a dark and comfortless chamber, and it 
is painful to suppose that the excellent Eleanor of Castile should, at such a time, 
have been limited to the accommodations of so miserable an abode. If it was 
deemed necessary, for reasons of state policy, that she should be conveyed to Wales 
when about to give birth to her child, her banishment to a strange, hostile, and half 
savage land, little needed to have had its severities aggravated by imprisonment in 
such a dungeon. It ought to be added, however, that notwithstanding the tradition 
of the place, there is much reason to doubt if the apartment in question was really 
that inhabited on this occasion by Queen Eleanor. It is, perhaps, more probable 
that she occupied the central room of the tower, which is large and commodious, 
and to which this may be regarded as merely a closet. 

The vast pile of Caernarvon castle stands on an elevated and rocky site, in the 
northwest quarter of the town, overlooking the Menai strait on the one hand, and 
with Snowdon and the other mountains of that range fronting it at no great dis- 
tance on the other. It is nearly surrounded by the sea on three of its sides, and a 
moat has, in former times, been drawn round the fourth. The whole is surrounded 
by a wall, defended at intervals by round towers. The area enclosed within this for- 
tification is in shape an irregular oblong, and is of great extent. It was formerly 
divided into two courts, the outer and the inner ; but, although the wall itself is still 
tolerably entire, the buildings in the interior are now in most places greatly decayed, 



THE SCENERY OF WALES. 



109 




110 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

and in some are mere heaps of ruins. There are two principal gates, the one facing 
the east, the other the west. 

Beside the Eagle tower, and that over the eastern entrance, over the gateway, in 
which is a statue of Edward I., armed with a dagger, there are numerous smaller 
towers, all angularly-shaped, but of various figures, some being five-sided, others six- 
sided, and others having eight sides. The walls, which are pierced with narrow 
slits, or loop-holes, are in general nearly eight feet thick ; but the thickness of those 
of the Eagle tower is not less than nine feet and a half. The only staircase that is 
not in ru«ins is that in the Eagle tower. The view from the top of this tower, 
over the Menai, its banks, and the Isle of Anglesey, is very beautiful. A fine terrace 
extends from the castle walls, along the banks of the Menai. 

From Caernarvon to Bangor (nine miles) the road runs generally at no great dis- 
tance from the Menai, and commands a beautiful succession of landscapes. About 
halfway, the woods of Plas Newydd, the seat of the marquis of Anglesey, on the 
opposite shore, will attract attention. Near the house is the largest and the finest 
cromlech remaining in Wales. The upper stone, according to Pennant's measure- 
ment, is twelve feet seven inches long, twelve feet broad, and four feet thick. A 
smaller one stands close by it. About seven miles from Caernarvon, a road to the 
left leads to the Menai bridge, one of the most magnificent specimens of engineering 
talent yet in existence. It was constructed under the direction of the late Mr. Tel- 
ford. In 1818, this gentleman was surveying the improvements which could be 
effected on the extensive line of roads from London to Holyhead — the point of the 
Welsh coast nearest to Ireland. Holyhead is situated in the island of Anglesey, 
which is separated from Caernarvonshire by a celebrated strait, or arm of the sea, 
named the Menai, through which the tide flows with great velocity, and, from local 
circumstances, in a very peculiar manner. The intercourse of the inhabitants with 
the opposite portion of Wales was thus circumscribed. There were five or six fer- 
ries, but the navigation was often difficult, and sometimes dangerous. One of the 
staple productions of the island is cattle, and they were generally compelled to swim 
across the strait. The importance of obtaining more rapid means of intercourse 
with Ireland, occasioned Mr. Telford strongly to direct his attention to the possi- 
bility of throwing a bridge across the Menai. The obstacles were a rapid stream, 
with high banks. To have erected a bridge of the usual construction would have 
obstructed the navigation ; besides, the erection of piers in the bed of the sea was 
impracticable. Mr. Telford therefore recommended the construction of a suspension 
bridge, which was completed in 1826. The bridge is partly of stone and partly of 
iron, and consists of seven stone arches, exceeding in magnitude every work of the 
kind in the world. They connect the land with the two main piers, which rise 
fifty-three feet above the level of the road, over the top of which the chains are sus- 
pended, each chain being 1,714 feet from the fastenings in the rock. The top masts 
of the first three-masted vessel which passed under the bridge were nearly as high 
as those of a frigate, but they cleared twelve feet and a half below the level of the 
roadway. The suspending power of the chains is calculated at 2,016 tons; the 
total weight of each chain is 121 tons. 

Conway, nine miles from Aber and fourteen from Bangor, is a very singular and 
interesting old town, situated on the declivity of a hill, sloping toward the estuary 
of the river from which it receives its name. From without it is extremely beauti- 
ful ; the ancient walls and towers are still entire, and give it, especially as seen from 
the eastern side of the river, where the whole circuit of them is seen at once, a most 
antique and warlike look. Neither are the streets wanting in their share of pictu- 
resque effect. Of the gates, the handsomest is that on the Llanrwst road. The 
-.astle, however, is apt to divert the attention from these minor attractions. Like 
Caernarvon castle, it was built by Edward I., and it has been supposed, by the same 
architect. It excels Caernarvon castle as much in beauty of situation and general 
picturesque effect, as it is inferior to it in architectural embellishment. The walls 
and towers are in very tolerable preservation. None of the staircases are perfect ; 
but a convenient wooden ladder gives easy access, even for ladies, to the top of the 
walls, of which a complete circuit may be made, so as to obtain a correct idea of 
the plan of the building, and of its external defences. They also command fine and 
varied views of the surrounding country. Of the building itself, the best views are 
those from the mound beyond the bridge, and from the creek on the south side of the 
castle, which is the one we have given. On that side there is a curious proof of the 



THE SCENERY OF WALES. 



Ill 




lis 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




THE SCENERY OF WALES. 113 

strength of the cement used in building the edifice. In quarrying for stone in the 
last century, the foundation of one of the round towers was so undermined that it 
gave way, and about half the circumference of the base has fallen in, the upper part 
of the structure, upheld by the tenacity of its parts, remaining perfect. The chasm 
snows like an irregular arch. 

The vale of Conway is one of the most celebrated .portions of Wales. Broad, 
rich, and beautiful in its lower part, it contracts and becomes bolder and more ro- 
mantic near Llanrwst. Mr. Roscoe gives it the preference not only over the vale 
of Clywd, which doubtless it deserves, but over that of Llangollen, in which we 
hardly agree with him. On the Denbighshire side, the hills are neither lofty nor 
bold ; to the west lies a large tract of rugged mountain, bounded by the deep vale 
of Nantfrangon, through which the Shrewsbury and Holyhead road is conducted from 
Capel Curig to Bangor. The principal summits on this elevated tract are Carnedd 
David (3,429 feet), and Carnedd Llewellyn (3,471 feet), not much inferior to Snow- 
don in height. These rise abruptly from Nantfrangon. East of these summits a 
considerable tract of undulating moor extends, containing many small lakes, which 
send their waters as tributaries to the Conway. One of these, issuing from Llyn 
Geirionydd, the most northerly of the lakes, crosses the road at Pont Porthlwyd, is- 
suing from a fine wild-looking ravine. 

Between Bangor and Capel Curig (fifteen miles) the Irish road passes through 
Nantfrangon (the beaver's hollow). Here, as in many other parts of Wales, the for- 
mer existence of that long extinct animal is recorded in the name of their haunt. The 
first four or five miles from Bangor are cultivated, and very pretty : the road then 
enters the mountains, on the borders of which, on the west side of the valley, lie the 
immense slate quarries which have proved so lucrative to the lords of Penrhyn cas- 
tle. They are well worth a visit. The immense size of the excavations, the pic- 
turesque forms which the rock assumes, the seemingly hazardous positions and em- 
ployments of the workmen, the machinery, the energy and activity prevailing over 
this immense manufactory, the ease and precision with which the rude material is 
reduced into plates of all dimensions, from tombstones to writing slates, render these 
works a singularly curious and attnctive spectacle. 

As the road advances up the valley, the mountains become loftier, and the glen 
more savage and more contracted. To the east the Carnedds rise with a high steep 
slope, their summits being invisible from this part of the road. To the west an ex- 
tensive tract of hill separates this valley from Nantberis, contracting in breadth as it 
advances to the southward, and rising, toward the head of Nantfrangon, into the lofty 
summits of the Glyders and Trivaen. About ten miles from Bangor, Nantfran- 
gon is abruptly closed by a steep rocky barrier, which extends completely across 
it, from the Glyders to the opposite hill. In Pennant's time, the way from the upper 
valley into Nantfrangon was, he says, by the most dreadful horse-path in Wales, 
worked in the rudest manner into steps for a great length. Now the finest road in 
the island traverses the same valley, attaining the upper level by a gradual ascent, 
the whole of which is trotting ground for the mail. At the top of this ascent the 
upper valley turns sharp to the east: it is a level tract, principally occupied by Llyn 
Ogwen, from which the river Ogwen issues in a full and rapid stream, crosses the 
road, and immediately begins its descent to the vale below in a cataract broken into 
three distinct falls. These are called after the name of the pass, the Benglog falls ; 
the name signifies a skull, and is thus applied probably from some fancied likeness 
of the naked and ghastly crags which enclose this stupendous scene. The falls are 
collectively of great height, devoid of wood, simple, and stern in character. They 
lose but little, however, in the absence of those minor elegances which form a 
principal attraction of many cascades : the rich feathering of birch and mountain- 
ash "would be scarce noticed here, where all is on the largest scale. The glen is 
wide, its sides steep and high ; the rocky wall, down which the river foams in full 
view, in a succession of bold leaps, is itself no inconsiderable elevation ; while be- 
hind and far above, the Glyders circle, the dale-head, with the darkest and most aw- 
ful precipice in the whole region of Snowdon. Other waterfalls may be thought 
more pleasing, but we doubt whether any in Wales be so grand as these. 

After leaving Llyn Ogwen, famous for trout, the road traverses a level moor, at- 
tractive only from the grand outlines of the surrounding mountains. A very trifling 
ascent parts the waters tributary to the Ogwen from those of the Llugwy, which is 
soon met coming down from its source in the hills above, and followed closely by 

8 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES 




ANTIQUITIES. 115 

the Irish road as far as Bettws, near its junction with the Conway. The inn of 
Capel Curig lies half a mile off the great road, in the direction of Beddgelert. 
About a mile further on, the Llugwy forms three step-like cascades of some height, 
which present a grand appearance from the road when the stream is full. Here be- 
gin the chief beauties of this short but very lovely vale. A little further on lies 
Rhaiadr Wennol (the fall of the swallow). A fantastical building, planted on the 
very point of a tall conical hill, immediately above the fall, indicates its position from 
a distance ; and the upper fall is partly visible from the road, which runs close by. 
It consists of three divisions, seemingly each from twenty to thirty feet in height ; 
but the river, if we recollect right, falls in a slanting direction, so as to render it diffi- 
cult to obtain a complete view of the whole. The breadth of the stream and the 
body of water are considerable, the rocks grand, and the woods rich and beautiful ; 
and there is a mixture of cheerfulness and sublimity in the whole scene, which ren- 
ders this one of the most attractive waterfalls in the country. The vale continues to 
wear its rich and romantic aspect to Bettws, where it unites with the vale of Con- 
way. Half a mile further the road crosses that river by a noble iron bridge, one 
hundred feet in span, and ascends its eastern bank toward Cernioge and Corwen. 
The road to Llanrwst crosses the Llugwy by the singular bridge called Pont y Pair, 
consisting of five arches, based on the bare rocky bed of the stream. Beneath it the 
river forms a cascade of no considerable height, but very striking from its rapidity 
and volume. In general one arch is amply sufficient for the passage of the waters, 
which have excavated a deep and narrow chasm in the rock. But the breadth of 
the bare rock testifies to the extent of the stream in time of flood ; and at puch sea- 
sons the rush of waters is said to be most grand and imposing. 

A range of hills, of which Snowdon is the highest (3,570 feet), traverses North 
Wales from south to north, terminating at Baumaris bay in the tremendous steep of 
Penmanmawr, whose hanging fragments threaten to bury him who travels by the 
difficult path which has been formed along its almost perpendicular sides. This hilly 
district comprehends a few tarns, or mountain lakelets, full of delicious fish. The 
general bleakness is delightfully relieved by the intervening vales, the largest of 
which is that of Clwyd, in Denbighshire, twenty miles long by about four or five in 
breadth, and presenting a brilliant picture of fertility. Among the lesser vales, the 
most famed for beauty is that of Llangollen, " where the Dee, winding through cul- 
tivated and pastoral scenes, presents at every step a varying landscape." Festiniog, 
in which a number of streams unite to form a little river, amid verdant and wooded 
scenes, is also celebrated by tourists. 

Logging stones, of which there are several in Wales, are explained by natural 
causes. The largest is one situated upon a cliffy promontory, near the Land's End. 
It is a mass seventeen feet in length, of irregular form, and believed to be about ninety 
tons in weight, resting by a slight protuberance upon the upper surface of the cliff, 
and so nicely poised, that a push from the hand, or even the force of the wind, causes 
it to vibrate. It appears that these logging stones are simply prismatic masses of 
the rock, which have chanced to be left in their present situation after adjoining 
masses of a similar character had been removed. 



CHAPTER XI. 
ANTIQUITIES. 

Perhaps the earliest objects of antiquity in England are the barrows or tumuli, 
with which the Britons were accustomed to cover their dead. Several of these still 
exist. Druidical remains rank perhaps next in point of antiquity. The most simple 
of these are the cromlechs and kist-vaens. 

Cromlechs are large stones placed in the fashion of a table, but in an inclining po- 
sition, upon others smaller, commonly three in number. The reason for this number 
of supporters is ingeniously conjectured by Borlase to be, that it was found easier to 



116 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



place and fix securely an incumbent weight on three supporters than on four or more 
because in the latter case all the four supporters must be exactly level at the top, and 
the under surface of tbe stone must also be planed and true, in order to bring tiie 
weight to bear exactly on every supporter ; whereas, three supporters obviate occa- 
sion for this nicety, the incumbent weight easily inclining itself and resting on any 
three props, although not exactly level at the top ; and accordingly, we find the cov- 
ering stone not horizontal, but more or less shelving, the weight naturally subsiding 
to the point where the lowest supporter is found. Unequal supporters would also be 
more easily procured than those of the same height. 

The name cromlech is interpreted to mean an inclining stone, from the British 
words crivm, bowed, and llech, a broad flat stone. 

Cromlechs are sometimes found isolated, but more usually in the centre of, or in 
some other way connected with, the druidical circles. When found in this situation, 
an upright stone is often standing near. For examples of these cromlechs, see the 
accompanying engraving, which represents the two most considerable of this class 
of monuments remaining in Great Britain. They are at Plas Newydd, in Anglesea. 




Cromlechs at Plas Newydd. 

The upper stone of one is twelve feet seven inches long, twelve feet broad, and four 
feet thick, supported by five tall stones. The other, but barely separated from the 
first, is almost a square of five feet and one half, supported by four stones. These 
are not only the most magnificent cromlechs, but the highest from the ground, for a 
middle-sized horse may easily pass under the largest. It is seen, however, that they 
do not afford the usual characteristic of three supporters. 

Concerning the use of these cromlechs there has been much controversy. Borlase 
and others contend that they were sepulchral monuments. It is true that human 
remains, ashes, bones, have been found under some of them ; but seeing that the 
human sacrifices by the Druids were notorious, these appearances might equally 
belong to them as altars or sepulchres. It is even possible that entire human bodies 
should be deposited there under peculiar circumstances, as a particularly honorable 
place of sepulture. In many no such remains have been found; and SirR. C. Hoare 
records a remarkable example (in a field on the road from Newport to Fishguard) of 
five kist-vaens placed in a circle, with a cromlech in the centre, and an outer circle 
of upright stones. Bones, charcoal, etc., were found under each of the kist-vaens, bu! 
none under the cromlech. This, under all the circumstances of allocation, is a re- 
markable testimony that cromlechs were not sepulchres in the primary intention, 



ANTIQUITIES. 117 

although, under certain circumstances, corpses may have been deposited beneath 
them. Besides, the forms of many of them are wholly unsuited to sepulchres. Some 
of ihem stand on the unbroken rock. 

The positive evidence that cromlechs were altars, is far stronger than even the 
negative testimonies that they were not sepulchres. Indeed, if they were not sepul- 
chres, it almost follows necessarily that they were altars, as it is difficult to conceive 
any other purpose for which they could be designed. Besides, it is of some weight 
that all the traditions associated with them, and'all the usages which in some remote 
quarters have remained connected with them, ascribe to them the character of altars. 
They are thus designated by Holinshed, who, after mentioning places "compassed 
about with great stones, round like a ring," adds, " but toward the south was one 
mightie stone, farre greater than all the rest, pitched up in manner of an altar, 
whereon their priests might offer sacrifices in honor of their gods." In the north, 
where the ideas connected with the several old monuments of stone have been longer 
preserved than in this country, the cromlechs which they have are still believed to 
have been altars. Jn that very instructive book, " Mallet's Northern Antiquities," 
we find the following passage: "Although we want the greater part of the monu- 
ments which might instruct us in that (primitive) stage of their religion, the traces 
of it are not yet entirely destroyed. We find at this day, here and there, in Den- 
mark, Sweden, and Norway, in the middle of a plain, or upon some little hill, altars, 
around which they assembled to offer sacrifices and to assist at other religious cere- 
monies. The greater part of these altars are raised upon a little hill, either natural 
or artificial. Three long pieces of rock, set upright, serve as a basis for a great flat 
stone, which forms the table of the altar. There is commonly a cavity under the altar, 
which might be intended to receive the blood of the victims ; and they never fail to find 
stones suitable for striking fire scattered round it, for no other fire but such as was 
struck forth with a flint was suitable for so holy a purpose. Sometimes these rural 
altars were constructed in a more magnificent manner ; a double range of enormous 
stones surround the altar and the little hill on which it is erected. In Zealand we 
see one of this kind. Men would even now be afraid to undertake such a work, not- 
withstanding the assistance of all the mechanic powers, which in those times they 
wanted. What redoubles the astonishment is, that stones of that size are rarely to 
be seen throughout the island, and that they must have been brought from a great 
distance. What labor and perseverance must then have been bestowed upon these 
vast, rude monuments, which are unhappily more durable than those of the fine arts. 
But men in all ages have been persuaded, that they could not pay greater honor to 
the Deity than by making for him (if I may so express it) a kind of strong bulwarks 
—in executing prodigies of labor, in consecrating immense riches. ... At Ephesus, 
they displayed their devotion by laying out all the treasures of Greece and 'Asia.' 
The Goths, whose bodily strength was all their riches, showed their zeal by rolling 
enormous rocks to the summits of hills." 

Olaus Wormius also regards all the various northern cromlechs as altars of different 
forms. In the north of Europe these are still called blod, that is, blood-stones, in- 
dicating their ancient use. 

Even subsisting usages support this appropriation. Mr. Downes, speaking of an 
immense Cromlech at Albersdorf, in the confines of Holstein, says that a well-informed 
man acquainted him " that the Cromlech was an altar for sacrifice ; and that there 
was another in the village of Bedel, near the river Elbe, surrounded with oaks, in a 
garden ; and that it was customary to offer sacrifices upon these cromlechs, before a 
person began ploughing, and before he was married ; that no one entered this grove 
without making a present, and that no one swept the cave [under the cromlech] 
without finding money." The traveller found it confirmed by traditions on the spot, 
that marriages were there celebrated in the open air, and sacrifices made before 
persons began ploughing. 

We may now turn our attention to the kist-vaen, concerning which the diversity of 
opinion has been as great as concerning the cromlech. It consists of two or three or 
more sides, or uprights, and a back stone occasionally, and over the whole is placed 
a top or covering-stone. In general a cell is thus formed, closed on three sides, and 
covered at top, but open now in front, although possibly closed when in actual use by 
some less durable material than the stone which forms the substance of the structure. 
The name kist-vaen (pi. kistieu-vaen) is Welsh, and means literally a stone chest. 
Kist-vaens are commonly found in the middle of stone circles, near the cromlech, and 



118 



DESCKIPTIC N OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



sometimes without any cromlech near. They are also found isolated like the crom- 
lechs, although generally other druidical monuments seem in their neighborhood. 
They are sometimes arranged in circles, with or without a cromlech in the centre ; 
but we are aware of no instance in which the reverse occurs, namely, in which a 
kist-vaen stands within a circle of cromlechs. But there examples in which kist- 
vaens combine with cromlechs to form a circle ; aud there are others in which a circle 
is formed by kist-vaens with intervening upright stones. A remarkable example of 
this last description is exhibited in the druidical circle in Jersey, a representation of 
which is given in the engraving below. 




Druidical Circle. — Jersey. 

There is certainly very considerable difficulty in determining the use of these mom* 
uments. Sir R. C. Hoare, from the instance, which has already been mentioned, of 
his finding a circle of five kist-vaens, under all of which there were sepulchral re- 
mains, while there were none under the central cromlech, is satisfied that they were 
intended for sepulchres. But, although the instance may be taken among others as 
proving that cromlechs were not sepulchres, but altars, it is by no means equally 
conclusive as to the kist-vaens being sepulchres, and this for nearly the same reasons 
as those by which the same purpose of cromlechs is rendered improbable. To which 
the other fact may be added, that under some of these monuments, that is, within 
the cell, springs of water rise, showing that such places could never have been sep- 
ulchres. That human remains and ashes are found around, or even within, some of 
them, might as well prove them to be altars as sepulchres: and even were remains, 
evidently inhumed with honor, there found, it would prove nothing as to their original 
intention. Honorable persons might desire to be buried in or near them, even as, 
among ourselves, persons of distinction are still buried in churches, and possibly for 
nearly the same reasons. It may have been a peculiar privilege of those initiated 
in the druidic mysteries to be buried in them. 

Besides, as Davies sensibly remarks, " The date of these erections being very 
remote, and their use entirely forgotten, it is not improbable that, being misled by 
certain resemblances which present themselves to superficial observation, we con- 
found two or three different kinds of monuments, which were really distinct, and 
which were erected for different purposes; and that, in consequence of this mistake, 
when we have discovered the use of one cromlech, we make erroneous conclusions 
respecting others." Most of the writers who suppose the cromlechs to be sepulchres, 
regard the kist-vaens as altars ; while those who regard the former as altars gener 



ANTIQUITIES. 



119 



ally deem the latter to be sepulchres. There are many, however* who deny the 
sepulchral use of either, and contend that the cromlech and kist-vaen are merely 
different kinds of altars, greater and lesser, the one perhaps for sacrifice, the other 
for oblations. We were for a time inclined to this opinion : but on careful delibera- 
tion, and considering that the first tabernacles and constructed temples are to be taken 
as commentaries on the stone monuments of more ancient date, we felt more dis- 
posed to find an analogy between the kist-vaen, or stone chest, and the ark, or sacred 
chest, which we find as the most holy object in the tabernacle and temple of the 
Hebrews, as well as in the Egyptian and some other heathen temples. In this case 
it would be the adytum, the most holy point, the Bethel, house of God, pre-eminently, 
and the true centre to which the local worship tended. Regarding the kist-vaen-, 
then, as being to these open stone temples what the ark was in constructed temples, 
or, in other words, as a stone ark, it becomes a question what was the original idea 
therein, and which occasioned so peculiar a form as that of a chest to be given to it. 
Druidical circles are more complicated. They usually consist of huge stones, 
placed on end, with, in some instances, connected lines or rows of similar stones, the 
whole forming objects at once rude and imposing. The most remarkable of these is 
that of Abury. This gigantic monument of druidical superstition is one of the 
most curious works of rude architecture in England. Most travellers have visited 
Stonehenge, and yet there are few but professed antiquaries who have ever heard the 
name of Abury. Dr. Stukely furnished a very interesting account of the vast circle 
delineated in the accompanying engraving ; and Mr. Britton took considerable pains 
in tracing its early history. But we are indebted to Mr. Brayley for the latest view 
of this vast druidical temple. 




Druidical Circle at Abaty. 

In England are single circles, consisting of stones not much, if any, larger than a 
strong man might bring to the place of their destination. Yet before these conse- 
crated places had the advantage of the arts of architecture and sculpture to confer 
upon them elegance and grandeur, recourse was had to magnitude in the masses 
employed ; and on comparing these works, in different places, we have to notice an 
obvious progression in the advances to this species of magnificence. Thus the circle 
of Rolbrick, in Oxfordshire, and that near Keswick, in Cumberland, consist of stones 
from two to not more than six feet in height ; while those of Stanton Drew, in Som- 
ersetshire, are from eight or nine, to ten or twelve feet high. This kind of magnifi- 
cence appears to have reached its climax in the stupendous works of Abury, or Ave- 
bury, and Stonehenge; particularly the former, which, for the space of ground that 
it originally covered, and the number and the magnitude of the stones employed, 
exceeds everything we read of in any country, except, perhaps, that at Camac, in 
Britany, which was also in form of a snake, and of which four thousand stones are 
computed to still remain. The figure of this ancient British work was that of the 
Egyptian symbol of the circle and the serpent, on a scale so magnificent, that the 
serpent extended two miles in length. This stupendous design was executed under 
local circumstances very favorable to it. On the north side of the Bath road, about 
half a mile from the village of Kennet, and about five miles from Marlborough, 
there is a ridge of the chalky downs that runs in a northerly direction ; this ridge 
abounds with prodigious masses of sandstone of very fine texture, and light color ; at 
the foot of this ridge, almost close to the road, is a long group of these stones, gray 
with moss, and somewhat resembling a flock of sheep reposing ; on which account 
they are called the Marlborough gray wethers. On an adjoining hill was formerly 



120 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

a double circle, which represented the head of the serpent, and the hill still retain* 
the name of Hak-pen, i. e., the snake's head. From this issued a double range of 
stones, winding over hill and vale to the extent of a mile; this avenue consisted of a 
hundred stones on each side, and may be considered as the sacra via, or path lead* 
ing to the consecrated spot ; the stones were all unhewn, and differing in size from 
three to five or six feet high. Here, in the central part, a circle was formed, of a 
hundred immensely large stones, some of them nearly six yards in height out of the 
ground, and about the same width ; but several were much smaller. From this 
large circle, which included a space of twenty acres, another serpentine avenue, 
formed of a hundred stones on each side, extended westward, toward Beckhampton, 
one mile, gradually diminishing, and closing with a single stone, forming the tail end 
of this enormous serpent. A few years back, a portion of the Kennet avenue was 
in being, and assisted the imagination in forming to itself a faint idea of what the 
whole must have been. Within the large single circle of stones were two double 
circles, one to the north, and the other to the south of the centre ; these were formed 
by two concentric circles each, the outer consisting of thirty, the inner of twelve 
stones ; and probably referring to the days in the solar month, and the twelve stones 
to the months of the year. The hundred stones in the great outer circle, and the 
hundred stones on each side of the two avenues, might also have reference to some 
circle peculiar to their own superstitions. 

At this day but little remains of this amazing work ; here and there a stone be- 
longing to the central part, a small portion of the Kennet avenue, and a few strag- 
gling stones on the Beckhampton side, with a few cromlechs on the west side of thi 
Kennet avenue, are all that are left of six hundred and fifty-two stones, which Di 
Stukely thus enumerates, as constituting the centre work of the temple : — 

The great circles 100 stone i 

Outer circle, north of the avenue -- 30" 

Inner do. ----------- 12 " 

Outer circle, south .--.-30" 

Inner do. 12 « 

Cove and altar-stone, north circle -.-----4" 

Central pillar and altar, south circle ------2" 

Kennet avenue ---------- 200 " 

Beckhampton avenue --------- 200 " 

Outer circle of Hak-pen 40" 

Inner do. 18 " 

Long-stone cove-jambs ---------2" 

A stone the doctor calls the ring-stone ------ 1\ " 

Closing stone of the tail .-1« 

Total 652 " 

Perhaps the three largest of these were those which formed a sort of cove within 
the north circle, having an altar-stone before it ; in the south circle was a single 
stone or pillar, which also had an altar-stone in front of it. The middle stone of the 
cove was about fifteen feet and a half square, and about four feet thick. In 1720, 
when Dr. Stukely visited this British wonder, both circles were standing, and almost 
entire. The central pillar of the south circle was twenty-one feet in height, and 
nine feet in diameter. 

Such was the colossal grandeur of the principal part of this symbolical structure, 
the magnificence of which must have been wonderfully augmented by the serpen- 
tine avenues, extending over hill and dale, for the distance of a mile on each hand. 
In 1722, the number of stones remaining in Kennet avenue were seventy-two, accord- 
ing to Dr. Stukely, to whose indefatigable industry we are indebted for the original 
figure of this grand British temple. 

Perhaps this vast design originated in the facility of obtaining suitable materials 
for its accomplishment, for the persons employed had only to disengage the gigantic 
masses from their native beds in the neigboring hills, and transfer them thence 
to the place selected for them. To these herculean operations, levers and rollers, 
with a numerous body of laborers, would be sufficient : much more time would ne- 
cessarily be requisite for the performance of their undertaking, than would have 



ANTIQUITIES. 121 

been had they possessed such powerful machinery as we do at the present day ; but 
those simple instruments were of themselves sufficient. 

The form of Abury is a proof of its being erected by persons conversant with the 
customs and religious rites and symbols of the Egyptians ; such were the Tyrians, 
who were in continual contact with that people, and also with Britain. 

Another druidical circle of great note is Stonehenge. This is the most remarkable 
ancient monument now remaining in Great Britain ; nor, indeed, is there known any- 
where to exist so stupendous an erection of the same character. Even in its present 
half-ruined state, the venerable pile retains a majesty that strikes, at the first glance, 
both the most refined and the rudest eye ; and the admiration of the beholder grows 
and expands as the more distinct conception of the original plan of the structure 
gradually unfolds itself from amid the irregular and confused mixture of the standing 
and fallen portions, which, for a short time, perplexes the contemplation. Stone- 
henge stands at a short distance from Amesbury, Wiltshire, on the brow of one of 
those broad and gentle elevations which undulate the vast level of Salisbury plain. 
The direction of the entrance, or avenue, is from northeast to southwest ; and this 
appears to have been the only entrance to the enclosure in which the building stands, 
which is formed by a circular ditch, three hundred and sixty-nine yards in circum- 
ference, and having a slight rampart on the inner side. The building stands in the 
centre of this circular area. An outer circle of enormous upright blocks, having 
others upon them, as the lintel of a door is placed upon sideposts so as to form a kind 
of architrave, has enclosed a space of one hundred feet in diameter. The upright 
stones in this circle had been originally thirty in number ; but only seventeen of them 
are now standing. That portion of the circle which faces the northeast is still tol- 
erably entire, and the doorway at the termination of the avenue may be said to be in 
perfect preservation. It consists of two upright stones, each thirteen feet in height, 
and between six and seven feet in breadth, with a third block placed over them, of 
about twelve feet in length, and two feet eight inches in depth. The space between 
the two posts is five feet, which is rather a wider interval than occurs between any 
two other pillars. Through the circle the broad side of the stone is placed in the 
line of the circumference, so that there must have been more of wall than of open 
space, in the proportion of six and one half to five. The imposts are fixed upon the 
uprights throughout, by the contrivance called a tenon and mortise ; the ends of the 
uprights being hewn into tenons or projections, and corresponding hollows being 
excavated in the imposts. They are oval or egg-shaped. Of course, there are two 
tenons on each upright, and two mortises in each of the imposts, which are of the 
same number with the uprights. The principal workmanship must have been be- 
stowed upon these fittings ; for, although the marks of the hewer's tool are visible 
upon the other parts of the stones, their surface has been left, upon the whole, rude 
and irregular. They are made to taper a little toward the top ; but even in this 
respect they are not uniform. Within this great circle there is another, formed by 
stones, not much smaller, but also much ruder in their outline ; of these there had 
originally been forty, but only twenty of them can now be traced. This circle has 
never had any imposts ; it is about eighty-four feet in diameter, and consequently the 
interval between it and the outer circle is eight feet. 

The next enclosure has been formed of only ten stones ; but they are of very ma- 
jestic height, exceeding that of the outer circle. They have been disposed in five 
pairs, and in the form of a half-oval, or rather of a horseshoe, the upper part facing 
the north end or great door ; the two pairs at the termination of the curve, which 
are distant from each other about forty feet, are each sixteen feet three inches in 
height ; but the height of the next two pairs is seventeen feet two inches, and that 
of the last pair, the station of which has been directly facing the opening, was twenty- 
one feet and one half. A striking effect must have been produced by this ascending 
elevation. A variety and a lightness must also have been given to the structure by 
the arrangement of the stones here, not at equal distances, as in the two exterior 
rows, but in pairs ; the intervals between each two pairs being much greater than 
that between the two stones composing each pair. The uprights of this row have 
imposts over them, as in the outer circle. One of these imposts is sixteen feet three 
inches long; of course the imposts here, not forming a continuous architrave, are 
only five in number. Of the five pairs, or rather trilithons (that is, combinations of 
three stones), although some of the shafts have been injured and mutilated, aFl are 
still in their places, except the fifth, or that which faced the entrance : this trilithon 



122 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




ANTIQUITIES. 1-23 

fell down on the 3d of January, 1797, and the stones now encumber a flat one, of 
about fifteen feet in length, which lay at their base. Lastly, there appears to have 
been a fourth enclosure, formed originally (as Stukely thinks) of nineteen stones, but 
only eleven now remain entire or in fragments. These seem also to have been ar- 
ranged in the shape of a half-oval, with the open part, as in the case of the other, to 
the northeast. Although greatly inferior in height to those last described, they are 
still taller than those of the second circle. The most perfect, according to Sir R. C. 
Hoare (see his History of South Wilts, London, 1812), is seven and one half feet 
high, and twenty-three inches wide at the base, and twelve at the top. Like the 
second circle, this row has never had any imposts. 

A variety of absurd legends are connected with the origin and purposes of this 
erection ; but it is now universally admitted, that the view taken of its origin by 
Stukely (1740) is the correct one, viz., that it is a druidical temple of the ancient 
Britons. It has also been the subject of wonder how the immense stones came there 
(this has been set at rest by Sir R. C. Hoare, who proves that those of the outer cir- 
cle, and the five trilithons of the grand oval, are of the same kind with those which 
are found in different parts of the surface of the Wiltshire downs, and are there called 
SarsenSlones, that is, stones taken from their native quarry in their rude state), they 
being a fine-grained species of silicious sandstone. Those forming the smaller circle 
and the smaller oval ar'e again quite different. Some are an aggregate of quartz, 
feldspar, chlorite, and horneblende ; one is a silicious schist ; others are hornstone, 
intermixed with small specks of feldspar and pyrites. What is called the altar, be- 
ing the stone now covered by the centre trilithon, is a micaceous fine-grained sand- 
stone. It is still a matter of speculation by what mechanical power they were placed 
in their situations. 

The druidical remains at Stanton Drew, in Somersetshire, deserve mention, though 
not equal in size and celebrity to those of Stonehenge and Abury, in Wiltshire. 

Stanton Drew is a small parish in the hundred of Keynsham, which was formerly 
called Stantone, and Stantune, from stean, a stone, and ton, a town. The present 
name is said to mean the Stone-town of the Druids. It is about seven miles south 
of Bristol, on the further side of Dundry hill (the site of an ancient beacon). 

For what purpose this and similar monuments were erected, is a point that has 
been much discussed ; but it is considered, from the name and other circumstances, 
to be almost certain that this ancient structure not only belonged to the Druids, but 
that the village of Stanton Drew was in some measure the metropolis or seat of 
government of the Hsedui. Druidical circles are by some antiquaries supposed to 
have been used to contain assemblies for purposes of religion, legislation, and other 
national affairs ; but great difference of opinion has arisen, as to what may have 
been the object of those rude, solitary stones which have no uniformity of size or 
structure, and which are found at irregular distances. The great antiquity of these 
monuments is unquestionable, some of them being intersected and injured by Roman 
ways, which sufficiently proves that their original use was lost before the construc- 
tion of the roads. Druidism, which is said to have been first established in this 
country, flourished in the time of Nero, and subsisted for a considerable time after* 
ward ; and young men came from Gaul to Britain to be initiated in the mysteries. 

It is asserted that Stanton Drew was constructed before Stonehenge ; and Dr. 
Stukely, who visited the place about 1723, considers it to be even more ancient than 
Abury. 

Beside some other stones, Stanton Drew consists of three circles, which, by the 
people in the neighborhood, are called the "Wedding," from a tradition that as a 
bride and her attendants were proceeding along, they were all converted to stone. 
The bride and bridegroom, the fiddler and the dancers, are fancifully pointed out, and 
it is considered wicked to attempt to count the stones. The measures given are 
principally taken from an account of this place, published by the Rev. S. Seyer in 
the year 1821 ; and on comparing his description with the existing state of the place 
in the year 1834, it was found correct. The great circle has a diameter of three 
hundred and forty-two feet; but as only five stones are standing in their places, the 
coup (Vozil is not striking. How many stones there were originally, it is not easy to 
determine, those that remain being at unequal distances ; and if the prostrate masses 
still lie where they fell, the stones could never have been regularly placed in the 
circle. Dr. Musgrave, who wrote in 1718, imagines that the number of stones in 



124 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




ANTIQUITIES. 



125 



this circle once amounted to thirty-two, and possibly there may have been more. 
They were not perfect in his time ; and they are said to have been much injured 
and broken, upward of a century ago, for the purpose of mending the roads ; and 
Dr. Stukely also mentions that they had suffered great dilapidation. Mr. Seyer 
thinks that there are certainly twenty-seven stones, which vary considerably in size 
and shape : one is sixteen feet high ; another, which is prostrate, is eleven feet high 
and nine feet wide ; others are not so large, but are of a remarkable form, as fig. 1, 
in the engraving. On the east side of this circle are five stones, which may have 
formed part of an avenue, as it is supposed that there were formerly four or five 
others. Still more to the east is a circle of eight stones, the circumference of which 
is one hundred and fifty feet distant from that of the large circle ; the diameter of 
this circle is ninety-four or ninety-six feet. It appears by Musgrave, that the eight 
stones were all erect in his time, except one ; at present four are prostrate, but they 
are high above the ground ; and from the superior workmanship, this circle is pos- 
sessed of considerable interest. Fig. 2 is twelve and a half feet high, perpendicu- 
larly ; it inclines toward the north, in which position it is supposed to have been ori- 
ginally placed. Fig. 3 is square and massive, and this, as well as the stone opposite, 
is a little out of the exact circle. The largest stone (fig. 4, fifteen and a half feet in 
length) is prostrate, and another stone is broken in several pieces. Eastward of these 
eight stones are seven others, which, with the addition of three or four more, which 
are conjectural, are said to have been an avenue to the circle of eight. Musgrave 
considers that these extrinsic stones, and the five others before described, originally 
formed another circle, going round the circle of eight. Stukely supposes that this 
circle and the stones in question, were at first five concentric circles, but this appears 
improbable, from the number of stones required, and of which there are no traces 
which would justify such a conclusion. The centre of the southwest circle, called 
by Stukely the Luna temple, is seven hundred and fourteen feet from the centre of 
the jreat circle. This diameter is stated by Wood to be one hundred and forty feet, 
by Stukely, one hundred and twenty feet ; and it consists of eleven or twelve stones, 
which are rude and irregular in appearance. Northwest of this circle, a little more 




Trevethy Stone Cromlech. 



126 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



than one hundred yards distant, is a cove (fig, 5) at which the Druids are supposed 
to have sat for judicial purposes. It is formed of three large, flat stones, which are 
about nine hundred and ninety-two feet from the centre of the great circle, and it is 
not far from the church of Stanton Drew. North or northwest of the cove, and 
about two thirds of a mile from the great circle, are two large stones, lying flat ; and 
beyond the river Chew, near the road on the approach to Stanton Drew, is a stone 
of large dimensions, called " Hackell's Quoit," which was formerly computed to 
weigh thirty tons, but it has been broken at different times, for materials to mend 
the roads. The local tradition is, that this immense stone was thrown into its pres- 
ent situation from Maes-knoll, by Sir John Hautville, or Hawkwell, a famous cham- 
pion, the distance being about a mile. At Maes-knoll is a barrow, which it is prob- 
able may have reference to Stanton Drew. 

Dr. Stukely supposes the original number of stones to have been one hundred and 
sixty ; but Seyer, with more appearance of probability, considers that they did not 
exceed sixty ; in addition to which, some few, hitherto unnoticed, are said to exist 
in unfrequented parts of the parish. The greater part of the stones are of magne- 
sian limestone, but some are of red sandstone and breccia. 

Trevethy stone also deserves notice. It is a fine cromlech in the parish of St. 
Cleer, near Liskeard, Cornwall. The term Trevedi is said to signify, in the British 
language, the place of graves, and its object was in all probability sepulchral. The 
stones are all of granite ; six of them are upright, and one large slab covers them, 
in an inclined position, with another reclining under it. The dimensions of the up. 
permost stone are about twelve by eight and a half feet, and one foot in thick- 
ness. No tradition exists as to the time when this monument was erected, but its 
name at once designates it to have been the work of the ancient Britons. It stands 
on a barrow, upon the summit of a hill, as shown in engraving on the previous page. 

Roman remains in Great Britain are now rare and nearly obliterated. Coins and 
mosaics, however, are occasionally found. A recent excavation brought to light the 
mosaic here inserted. This, and other remains of a similar character, show that 
luxury had made great progress in Great Britain at an early period. 




Roman Mosaic. 



The Romans, like the Britons, erected barrows over their dead, which were inva- 
riably placed near their roads. Coins, urns, patera?, weapons, armor, and articles of 
ornament, are frequently found i- the Roman barrow. The annexed engraving 
shows the interior of a Roman barrow, discovered in Chatham Lines, in Septem- 
ber, 1799. 



ANTIQUITIES. 



12T 




Interior of a Roman Barrow. 

Although this barrow does not represent the leading features of the Roman de- 
scription, yet its having formed part of a cluster of barrows, the contents of which 
.eave no doubt as to the nation to whom they belong, we are bound to believe that 
this also is Roman. The cist, in which the body was laid, was nearly eight feet in 
length, and four feet below the level of the native soil. The body lay with the head 
to the south, and there was no appearance of a coffin. The accompanying remains 
6howed it to have been a warrior ; at the feet lay a bottle of red earth. 

Other barrows, opened in the same lines, gave more certain remains of Roman 
workmanship, beads, rings, fibulae, armillse, and various other relics. It has been 
observed that small barrows yield more articles of antiquity than large barrows. A 
list of articles found in the small barrows, with a short description, may not be deemed 
out of place : — 

Swords. — Commonly of iron, sometimes of brass, generally equal in length, without 
ornaments of other metals, and the blade long and double edged. 

Spear-heads. — Also of iron, and, in form, scarcely two alike ; they seldom exceed a 
foot in length, and are an inch to an inch and a" half at the widest part in breadth. 
Bows and arrow-heads are seldom met with. 

Knives, from three to eight inches in length, of iron, with wooden cases, parts ol 
which, decayed, are often attached to the blades. 

Pans and vessels of earth, containing liquids, not in shape like the cineritious urns, 
but of light red or brown unglazed earth, with narrow necks. 

Vessels of glass and beads, the latter of various shapes and colors, are generally 
found in barrows, the human contents of which are supposed females. 

Armillae of iron, glass, and brass, bracelets of gold wire woven, and brooches of va- 
rious forms, often with delicate ornaments. 

Amulets and rings — the former often of gold, the latter of slight workmanship, often 
of silver wire with a bead, and in Roman seldom solid. Rings of brass and iron 
often occur in British barrows, and are supposed to be the same commonly allowed 
to have passed for money. 

Nor are these burial places found confined alone to those of the ancient Britons 
and Romans. The Danes likewise have left behind them sepulchral monuments, 
varying entirely from those of the preceding. 

Our engraving represents one which was discovered in 1817, in Willow, Somer- 
setshire. It measured one hundred and seven feet in length, fifty-four in breadtn, 
and was thirteen in height. The entrance was closed by a large flat stone, which 
rested on two others. The bodies were deposit \ in a gallery fifty-seven feet long, 
arranged as seen in the plan. The walls on each ;ide are formed of stones strongly 
cemented together. In this were found bones and cinerary urns, which prove that 
the custom of burning bodies had not entirely passed into disuse at this time. 

The roads formed by the Romans have, in some instances, been changed into the 
broad and well-paved ways which occur so often in England. In other cases, slight 
traces of the original pavement, which generally consisted of large stones, forming 
a causeway, are to be found. 



ioq 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




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ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 129 

Some of the most remarkable ruins of the walls of the Romans are to he seen in 
ifork, of which the following account is given by Dr. Lister : — 

" Carefully viewing the antiquities of York, the dwelling at least of two of the 
Roman emperors, Severus and Constantius, I found part of a wall yet standing, 
which is undoubtedly of that time. It is the south wall of the mint-yard, and con- 
sists of a multangular tower, which did lead to Bootham bar, and part of a wall 
which ran the length of Coning-street, as he who shall attentively view it on both 
sides may discern. 

" The outside to the river is faced with a very small saxum quadratum, of about 
four inches thick, and laid in levels like our modern brickwork. The length of the 
stones is not observed, but they are as they fell out in hewing. From the founda- 
tion twenty courses of these small squared stones are laid, and over them five courses 
of Roman bricks. These bricks are placed, some lengthwise, some endwise in the 
walls, and were called lateres diatoni ; after these five courses of brick, other twenty- 
two courses of small square stones, as before described, are laid, which raise the wall 
some feet higher, and then five more courses of the same Roman bricks ; beyond 
which the wall is imperfect, and capped with modern building. In all this height 
there is not any casement or loophole, but one entire and uniform wall ; from which 
we may infer that this wall was built some courses higher, after the same order. 
The bricks were to be as thoroughs, or, as it were, so many new foundations, to that 
which was to be superstructed, and to bind the two sides firmly together ; for the 
wall itself is only faced with small square stone, and the middle thereof filled with 
mortar and pebble. 

" These bricks are about seventeen inches long of our measure, about eleven inches 
broad, and two and a half thick. This (having caused several to be carefully meas- 
ured) I give in round numbers, and do find them to agree well with the Roman foot, 
which the learned antiquary Graves has left us, viz., of its being about half an inch 
less than ours. They seem to have shrunk in the baking, more in the breadth than 
in the length, which is but reasonable, because of their easier yielding that way; 
and so, for the same reason, more in thickness : for we suppose them to have been 
designed in the mould of three Roman inches. This demonstrates Pliny's measures 
to be true, where he says, ' Genera laterum tria didoron, quo utimur longum sesqui- 
pede latum pede ;' and not those of Vitruvius, where they are extant ; the copy of 
Vitruvius, where it describes the didoron and its measures, being vicious. And in- 
deed, all I have yet seen with us in England are of Pliny's measure, as at Leicester, 
in the Roman ruin there, called the Jew's wall, and at St. Alban's, as I remember, 
as well as with us at York. I shall only add this remark, that proportion and uni- 
formity, even in the minutest parts of a building, are to be plainly perceived, as this 
ruin of Roman workmanship shows." 

At Newcastle and Carlisle are the remains of the two walls built respectively by 
the emperors Adrian and Severus, A. D. 120 and 210, to keep out the northern bar- 
barians: the first being a high mound of earth, and the second a rampart of stone, 
sixty-eight and one half miles long, running parallel to the first, on the outside. 

Remains of Roman camps, bridges, villas, baths, &c, also exist in various parts 
of England. All the towns, the names of which terminate in chester or cesler, are 
considered as having been originally Roman stations. Near St. Alban's are the re- 
mains of the walls which once surrounded the Roman town of Verulamium, the site 
of the town itself having long been subjected to the plough. 

Upon a rocky cliff, to the westward of the town of Hastings, there are some re- 
mains of a large and very ancient castle. At what period, or by whom it was erected 
is not stated by any writer who has treated of British antiquities. But from its situ- 
ation, which must have been particularly favorable to the ancient mode of {'unifica- 
tion, it is more than probable that a fortress existed here long before that which the 
Danish rovers, under Hastings' their leader, are said to have constructed. This con- 
jecture receives some support from a passage in the " Chronicles of Dover Monas- 
tery," printed in Leland's " Collectanea," which says, that "when Arviragus threw 
off the Roman yoke, it is likely he fortified those places which were most convenient 
for their invasion, namely, Richborough, Walmer, Dover, and Hastings." Bishop 
Lyttleton, however, was inclined to think that here was originally a Roman fortress, 
built as a defence against the invasion of the pirates. He further observes, that, al- 
though William the Conqueror, as we are told, ran up a fort at Hastings just before 
his engagement with Harold, this could not have been his work, as it would have 

9 



130 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 131 

required more time and labor than his circumstances would then have allowed ; and 
concludes that William might probably have repaired the old Roman castle, and 
have placed a garrison in it. In the " History of Canterbury," written by Eadmer, 
it appears that, in the year 1090, almost all the bishops and nobles of England were 
assembled by royal authority at the castle of Hastings, to pay persona' homage to 
King William II. before his departure for Normandy. 

Little more concerning this castle is mentioned in history, except that within its 
walls there was a free royal chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, in which was a 
dean, with several secular canons and prebendaries. It is supposed to have been 
founded by one of the earls of Eu, while proprietor of the castle. Prynne, as quoted 
by Grose, records various circumstances relative to a dispule between King Edward 
III. and the bishop of Chichester and archbishop of Canterbury, concerning the risrht 
claimed by them of visiting this chapel, which, how, ver, in the reign of Henry VI., 
was placed under the jurisdiction of the former of these prelates. 

What remains of the castle approaches nearest in shape to two sides of an oblique 
spherical triangle, having the points rounded off. The base, or south side, next the 
sea, completing the triangle, is formed by a perpendicular craggy cliff, about four 
hundred feet in length, upon which are no vestiges of walls or other fortification. 
The east side is made by a plain wall measuring nearly three hundred feet, without 
tower or defence of any kind. The adjoining side, which faces the northwest, is 
about four hundred feet long, ""he area included is about an acre and one fifth. 
The walls, nowhere entire, are about eight feet thick. The gateway, now demol- 
ished, was on the north side, near the northernmost angle. Not far from it, to the 
west, are the remains of a small tower, enclosing a circular flight of stairs ; and still 
farther westward, a sally-port and the ruins of another tower. On the east side, at 
the distance of about one hundred feet, ran a ditch, one hundred feet in breadth at 
the top, and sixty feet deep ; but both the ditch, and the interval between it and the 
wall, seemed to have gradually narrowed as they approached the gate, under which 
they terminated. On the northwest side there was another ditch, of the same 
breadth, commencing at the cliff opposite to the westernmost angle, and bearing 
away almost due north, leaving a level intermediate space which, opposite to the 
sally-port, was one hundred and eighty feet in breadth. 

The following engraving represents the present appearance of a building remark- 
able as being not only the most ancient specimen of the architecture of the Pomans 
now existing in Great Britain, but almost the earliest building constructed of ma- 
sonry in a regular manner that was erected in this country. 

Standing on the most elevated portion of the hill on which the castle of Dover is 
situated, it forms a conspicuous object visible for miles around, and for the last 
eighteen hundred years has served as a landmark to guide the mariner to the shores 
of England. 

Dover castle, like most ancient buildings which have been maintained for pur- 
poses of a rough kind of utility, presents more evidences of strength than elegance. 
The different portions of this pile of buildings have been erected at various times, 
and generally without any regard to appearance ; yet the effect from a distance is 
perhaps more imposing than if the strictest architectural proportions and uniformity 
of style had been observed ; and even on a nearer view the spectator can not fail to 
admire the picturesque character of the scene. Taking in nearly the whole of the 
level part on the summit of the hill, the castle walls enclose an area of nearly thirty 
acres, on which towers and keeps and walls of Roman, Saxon, and Norman construc- 
tion, are wildly mingled with structures of more modern date, which the exigences 
of the garrison have from time to time caused to be added to the original plan. 

It has been supposed that the Britons, before they were invaded by the Romans, 
bad erected something like a castle or stronghold on the site of the present fortress; 
and it has been said that on such a foundation Julius Csesar caused a more substan- 
tial and effective building to be constructed. But it would require little pains to 
show that the Britons, living in a very low state of civilization, were so unacquaint- 
ed with the means by which other nations sought to protect themselves from the en- 
croachments of enemies, and so totally ignorant of the most necessary arts of life, as 
to be unequal to the task which some modern antiquaries have assigned them. With 
respect to the second supposition, a brief consideration will be sufficient to convince 
us that the tradition which ascribes the erection of a fort on this spot to Cresar, is at 
least destitute of probability, if it be not founded in error. 



132 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



}■■'<'• '■{■■• 

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kii i 







ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 133 

Caesar has himself left us a very graphic account of his visit to these shores ; and 
if we compare his narrative with the geography of the coast, we shall scarcely fail 
in arriving at the conclusion that the place of his landing was not at that point of 
the coast where Dover now stands, but at a considerable distance from it to the 
northeast. It is true that he appears on his first arrival to have sailed straight for 
the point now occupied by the town (the sea at that time flowing nearly close to the 
rocks called the " Heights," from which it bas since receded) ; but he there met 
with such a resistance from the natives, that he was compelled to withdraw his men 
from the reach of their missiles. He now held a council of war, and eventually or- 
dered the vessels to proceed round to a place about seven miles further, where a 
capacious bay between the isle of Thanet and the cliff near Walmer castle appeared 
to offer a less hazardous place for the disembarkation of the troops. But here again 
he met with a vigorous resistance, and finding the attempts of his men to force a 
landing ineffectual, they were recalled, and the galleys again sent further on. The 
thijrd attempt was made at a part of the shore where the isle of Thanet was divided 
from the mainland by a large estuary (at that time sufficiently deep and spacious to 
allow vessels to pass through, and thus avoid going round the foreland). Here, after 
a sharp struggle, he succeeded in effecting a landing, and being now able to cope 
with the natives to more advantage, he very soon put them to the rout. 

But although he thus effected a landing, and afterward obtained various successes 
in his expeditions against the natives, he found himself so harassed by them and 
by the savage condition of the country, as well as from anxiety for the safety of his 
ships, that he was glad to avail himself of the earliest opportunity for taking his 
departure. This occurred in the fifty-fifth year before the Christian era. 

In the ensuing year he made another visit to Britain, and, coming better pre- 
pared, was enabled to achieve greater success, but even on this second expedition he 
did not stay long in the island, and we have no account of his having erected a fort- 
ress on the hill where the remains stand which have caused so much speculation. 
He certainly alludes to the completion of his camp before he attempted to penetrate 
into the country, but we have every reason to believe that this was near the' spot 
where he landed, and where his ships required protection. 

There was a considerable interval between the evacuation' of the island by Julius 
Caesar and the next visitation of the Romans. It was not till the third year of the 
reign of Claudius, that that emperor determined to invade Britain for the purpose of 
annexing it to the empire. Aulus Plautius was accordingly sent to Britain for this 
purpose, with such legions as could be spared from the service in Gaul, and he suc- 
ceeded in subjugating a considerable portion of the country. He reduced it to the 
form of a province; and having placed several of his veteran officers as governors 
of different districts, concluded he had effected the object for which he had been 
sent. But many of the natives having rebelled against the Roman authority, Pub- 
lius Ostorius Scapula was sent, in the year 49, to repress the insurrectionary move- 
ments of the Britons. In this he partially succeeded ; and in order to preserve the 
tranquillity to which the country had been reduced, as well as to suppjess any fur- 
ther manifestation cf ill-will, he proceeded to erect several forts at different parts 
of the country. 

This is the first authentic account of there being any Roman masonry in the king 
dom ; and it is from this era we may date the commencement of the wor 1 " on the 
Castle Hill. 

The plan of the fortifications erected by the Romans may be easily traced by the 
present remains. The space enclosed by them did not exceed the length of four hun- 
dred feet, by about one hundred and forty feet in the greatest width. It was in the 
form of an oval, surrounded by a deep ditch and a high parapet ; and although little 
more appears to have existed as a means of defence, the natural strength of the posi- 
tion was of more importance than a more extensive plan of fortification would have 
been, deprived of such an advantage. The octagonal building seen in the engraving 
is supposed to have been a lighthouse, and was probably erected, not less for the 
purpose of commemorating their conquest, than of affording assistance to merchants 
and others passing over from the continent. This edifice is of a square form in the 
interior, the sides being about fourteen feet wide, while the thickness of the walls is 
equal to ten feet. It is probable it was originally constructed higher than it now 
appears, though it is impossible now to say whether such was the fact. The entrance 
to the northeast is about six feet wide, the passage being arched and in good preser- 



134 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

vation ; but the window"} above have been altered, repaired, and disfigured, so tha 
it is scarcely possible to recognise them as a part of the original building. The 
structure of this tower is peculiar, as the materials consist of blocks of a stalactical 
concretion, mingled with tiles. This tower was made a place of defence in the time 
of William the Conqueror, when it underwent several alterations ; and it was repaired 
in the year 1259 by Richard de Grey, the constable of the castle. Since that time it 
has been allowed to take its chance of preservation against time and weather, both 
of which it has bravely resisted ; but we are afraid, if it does not shortly succumb to 
the elements, it will be destroyed by the hand of man, as antiquarian tyroes are carry- 
ing it away piecemeal. 

Adjoining the lighthouse is a building which for many ages was used as a church, 
and which appears to have been erected eitner by the Romans or with the materials 
of some c'her edifice constructed by them. There is a tradition which ascribes its 
erection to the piety of Lucius, a king of Britain, who is said to have been converted 
to Christianity about the year 172. Though this may be doubted, it is certain that 
at a very early period it was used as a church. The Romans occupied a church on 
this spot until they quitted the country, in the year 446 : but whether that was the 
same building as the one still remaining, we must probably for ever remain in igno- 
rance. It has also been said to have been afterward occupied by St. Austin and his 
followers by permission of Ethelbert. So at least the monkish chronicles inform us ; 
but it has been supposed by modern antiquarians, and with probability, to have been 
pulled down and rebuilt by some of the masons or architects who arrived from the 
continent in the eighth century, after St. Austin had succeeded in planting the Chris- 
tian religion in Britain. After the time of William I. (when John de Fienes, the 
constable of the castle, placed thrr? chaplains in the church), we often find mention 
made of it ; and several of the officers connected with the castle have been buried 
there. 

The building is in the form of a cross, with a square tower rising over the intersec- 
tion formed by the transept and the body, which is supported by four pillars. The 
length of the body of the church to the tower is sixty feet. 

The tower, which in the engraving is seen in the distance, forms part of the Nor- 
man additions to the castle, which surround the old Roman fortification to a consid- 
erable extent. Indeed, the space occupied on the Castle Hill by the Romans is very 
confined in comparison with the works of after-ages, which, as we have said, occupy 
thirty acres of ground. 

The Roman amphitheatre at Dorchester is an interesting object to the antiquary. 
It has generally been the policy of a conqueror to engraft the manners of his own 
country on a vanquished people, that their tastes may gradually become assimilated 
to that of their conquerors, and the desire for a disunion less ardent. Thus the Ro- 
mans, when they obtained a footing in Britain, lost no time in introducing in the 
island, and disseminating among the inhabitants those luxurious habits and volup- 
tuous enjoyments to which a long career of power and prosperity had familiarized 
them. But among the customs which characterize different nations, and by which 
we may oftentimes judge of their leading dispositions, none have so great an effect 
on the minds of the common people, and from none is it so difficult to wean them, as 
their national sports and festivals. The Romans seem to have been aware of this, 
and to have exerted themselves greatly to render their own sports and amusements 
popular in their newly-acquired territory, conscious that nothing would tend more to 
dispel the lurking enmity and jealousy of the natives, than the taste acquired for new 
pleasures, and the commingling of both nations in the same amusements; and it is 
probably to this principle, rather than to the necessity for providing sports for their 
own soldiers, that we may refer the erection for those large amphitheatres, the re- 
mains of some of which are yet distinguishable in different parts of England. The 
most perfect of these is that represented in the engraving, situated in the immediate 
vicinity of Dorchester, which in dimensions almost rivals the celebrated erections of 
Italy itself. 

An amphitheatre differs from a theatre in being a continuous enclosure, the latter 
being only a semicircle, having its diameter closed up by the scene or stage. The 
first permanent theatre was erected by Pompey, although previously theatres had 
been constructed for temporary purposes, of great magnificence and at an extraordi- 
nary expense. Pliny minutely describes the theatre erected by Scaurus in hissedile- 
ship, which in splendor surpassed even the works of a similar character, produced 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 



135 




136 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

under the auspices of the emperors themselves. The scene was divided into three 
compartments, one above the other, (according to the practice of the ancient plays), 
and adorned with three hundred and sixty columns of marble, which material was 
also used for the base of the building, although the use of it at that time was con- 
sidered a piece of unwarrantable extravagance ; the sides were plated with glass, 
then a most costly article, and the boards, ceilings, and floorings of the upper stories 
were gilt. The pillars were each thirty-eight feet high, around which and inter- 
spersed between them were statues and images of brass, to the number of three 
thousand. The hangings of this theatre were of cloth of gold ; the stage was, 
besides, ornamented with pictures; and the actors' apparel was of the most costly 
description. We may form some idea of the expense of these adjuncts, by the esti- 
mated value of a portion which was afterward consumed at a fire which burnt the 
villa of Scaurus, at Tusculum. Pliny says that those articles which were burnt 
amounted in value to a hundred millions of sesterces, upward of 80,000/. The the- 
atre itself was sufficicntlv large, according to the writer from whom this account is 
taken, to contain eighty thousand persons, seated ; but as it would apparently require 
a space seven hundred feet in diameter, to accommodate this number, the accuracy 
of the dimensions has been doubted ; yet Pliny, in the same passage, notices the dif- 
ference between this and the theatre of Pompey, which, he says, was contrived to 
contain only forty thousand seats. 

The plan of the ancient amphitheatres, although they sometimes differed in unim- 
portant particulars, may be briefly described as follows: An oval space, called the 
arena, from the sand with which it was strewn, to give a firm footing and to absorb 
the blood shed in the sports, was surrounded by seats, gradually rising, one above 
the other, in an inclined plane, till they reached a gallery or terrace which encom- 
passed the whole. There were doors and passages leading to the seats in different 
parts of the building, which seats were divided vertically into cunei by staircases, 
and horizontally parted off for the different ranks of spectators. The space nearest 
the arena, called the podium, was appropriated to the senators, who generally had 
seats placed for them by their servants ; the seats immediately above were set apart 
for the knights, with whom sat the civil and military tribunes ; and the upper rows 
were occupied by the plebeians. Women were stationed in a gallery above, and 
servants in the highest gallery. Besides these, there were sometimes further dis- 
tinctions made, youths being placed in a cuneus by themselv -« or with their tutors, 
and married men separated from the unmarried. 

Gladiatorial exhibitions, and the public slaughter and combats of wild beasts, had 
been introduced to Rome at an early period of its history ; but these shows generally 
took place in the forum or in the circus, until Julius Caesar, in his dictatorship, con- 
structed a wooden theatre, or amphitheatre, for the purpose of feasting, or killing 
wild animals. But the first amphitheatre intended to be permanent, was built, 
partly of stone and partly of wood, by Statilius Taurus, at the instigation of Augus- 
tus, who was passionately fond of these sports, especially the hunting of rare beasts. 
This was burnt during the reign of Nero, and though restored, fell short of the 
wishes of Vespasian, who commenced the vast structure completed by his son Titus, 
and afterward called the Coliseum, otherwise the Flavian amphitheatre. The ex- 
pense of this building, it is said, would have sufficed to erect a capital city, and its 
dedication was celebrated with the utmost magnificence. The number of wild beasts 
slaughtered on the occasion is said to have amounted to more than five thousand 
(Dion Cassius makes the number nine thousand). At the conclusion of these san- 
guinary sports, the arena was filled with water, and a number of vessels, richly 
decorated, and filled with men, went through all the manoeuvres of a seafight. On 
extraordinary occasions, further luxuries were contrived to gain the admiration of 
the multitude, or to increase the splendor of the scene. The arena was sometimes 
strewn with pounded stone: Caligula, in a fit of extravagance, used borax; and 
Nero, on another occasion, clothed it with a brilliant red, by mixing cinnabar with 
the borax. Many other extravagances might be mentioned, by which a temporary 
notoriety was gained by the expenditure of vast sums of money, which, properly or 
wisely dispensed, would have effected some good, and crowned the donor with im- 
perishable honor. 

To return to the amphitheatre at Dorchester. This memorial of the former power 
of the Romans in Britain is situated on the rising part of a plain, about a quarter of 
a mile beyond the southwestern gate of the town, from the inhabitants of which it 



MONASTIC ANTIQUITIES. 137 

has received the name of Maumsbury, from what cause it is difficult to conjecture. 
In the neighborhood are other antiquities, and one of the ancient roads of the Romans 
passes near the spot. The dimensions of this ruin are considerable, the longest diam- 
eter being two hundred and eighteen feet, and the shortest one hundred and sixty- 
three. The arena is sunk somewhat below the level of the surrounding plain, while 
the sides, formed of solid chalk, which abounds in this part of Dorsetshire, are ele- 
vated some thirty feet above it. The entrance is at the northeast end of the oval, 
opposite to which is a staircase, or sloping pathway, ascending to the top of the su- 
perstructure, having beneath wbat appears to be the remains of a cave or subterra- 
neous apartment, used to confine the animals destined for the sports. Commencing 
near the entrance, and gradually ascending on each side till it attains the middle row 
of seats, whence it declines to the opposite end of the oval, is a passage or terrace, 
probably intended to separate the popularia, or seats of the common people, from 
those of the knights, &c. This may be described by a circle, the centre of which is 
in that of the ellipse, having a diameter of about the mean of the two diameters of 
the ellipse or oval. On the top of the rows of seats is a terrace, about twelve feet 
broad, divided from the seats by a parapet ; and from this, descending to the smaller 
terrace just described, is a cuneus, or parcel of seats, thirty feet in breadth, but some- 
what different in dimensions to the rest, which are each one foot high and two feet 
and a half wide. It is probable these seats were covered with stone or wood, although 
it was the practice of even the plebeians to bring cushions with them to sit on. 

In consequence of the arena having been much ploughed up, it is difficult to trace 
the outline of the podium, a broad platform which surrounded the arena, and to 
which the senators and highest officers were admitted ; but its extent may be defined 
on a close scrutiny. Before the podium, grates, nets, and lattice-work of iron, were 
placed for security against the wild beasts ; and to prevent their escaping among the 
spectators, there were also fixed wooden rollers, which, turning round, prevented 
the animals from climbing up. At the amphitheatre at Rome, in the time of Nero, 
these nets were knotted with amber; and the emperor Carinus caused them to be 
made of golden cord or wire, while the rollers were formed of ivory. 

Dr. Stukely, who published an account of this amphitheatre in 1723, computes 
the area capable of containing nearly 23,000 people. He supposes it to have been 
constructed about the time of Titus ; but of course, in such a matter, where the re- 
mains offer nothing, either in plan, construction, or inscription, capable of affording 
any information, and where no record exists to which we may refer for a solution of 
the question, it is impossible to arrive at anything but a conjectural conclusion. In 
modern times the arena has been used for the execution of criminals ; and when, so 
late as 1705, a woman was burnt here for some crime, 10,000 people assembled to 
witness the punishment. The frequent assemblages on similar occasions had, when 
Stukely visited it, much defaced the structure ; and although it has not much altered 
in appearance since, the plough has rendered the arena very different from its origi 
nal appearance. 



CHAPTER XII. 
MONASTIC ANTIQUITIES. 

Under this head we propose to describe a few of these picturesque ruins which 
add such a charm to the English landscape, and which, with the ruined towers and 
old casiles which diversify the topography of that celebrated kingdom, tend to give 
a romantic in'erest to every portion of this gem of the ocean. 

Neiley (or Nettley) abbey, near Southampton, has long been celebrated as one of 
the most picturesque ruins in England. The proper name of the place appears to 
be Letteley, which has been Latinized into de Imto loco (pleasant place), if it be not, 
as has been most commonly supposed, a corruption of this Latin designation. 
Another abbey in the neighborhood was, in the same manner, called Beaulieu in 



138 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

French or Norman, and de bello loco in Latin. The founder of Netley abbey is 
stated to have been Peter Roche, bishop of Winchester, who died in 1238. The 
first charter appears to be granted by Henry III., in 1251. The abbey is there called 
Ecclesia Sancice Maria de loco Sancti Edwardi, and, in conformity with this, 
another of the English names of the place is Edwardstow. The monks of Netley 
abbey belonged to the severe order of the Cistertians, and were originally brought 
from the neighboring house of Beaulieu. Hardly anything has been collected with 
regard to the establishment for the first three hundred years after its foundation, ex- 
cept the names of a few of the abbots. At the dissolution it consisted of an abbot 
and twelve monks, and its net revenue was returned at only about 100/. It appears, 
indeed, to have been always an humble and obscure establishment. In the valuation 
of Pope Nicholas IV., made toward the end of the thirteenth century, it is set down as 
having an income of only 17/. Nor did the riches of the good monks consist in their 
library. L eland found them possessed of only one book, which was a copy of 
Cicero's Treatise on Rhetoric. In 1537, the place was granted by the king to Sir 
William Paulet, afterward the celebrated marquis of Winchester, who, according 
to his own account, was indebted for so much success in life to " being a willow, not 
an oak." From him, or his descendants it passed to Edward Seymour, Earl of 
Hertford, the son of the Protector Somerset, who is said to have made it his resi- 
dence. In a little work, entitled " A Companion in a Visit to Netley Abbey," printed 
in 1800, there is an extract given from the parish register of St. Michael's, South- 
ampton, from which it is inferred that Queen Elizabeth visited Lord Hertford in 
August, 1560 ; a circumstance not noticed in the elaborate account of her majesty's 
" Progresses," published by the late Mr. Nicholls. It states that she came from the 
castle of Netley to Southampton on the 13th, and went thence to Winchester on the 
16th. The abbey, it is supposed, at this time, was known by the name of the castle. 
About the end of the seventeenth century it became the property, it is said, of a 
marquis of Huntingdon ; but the earl of Huntingdon must be meant, for there never 
was a marquis of that name. He has the credit of having commenced the desecra- 
tion of the old building, by converting the nave of the church into a kitchen and 
offices. There is also a strange story in which he is implicated, told by Browne 
Willis, the antiquary, and the memory of which is still preserved by tradition, in the 
neighborhood. The earl, it is said, about the year 1700, or soon after, made a con- 
tract with a Mr. Walter Taylor, a builder of Southampton, for the complete demo- 
lition of the abbey, it being intended by Taylor to employ the materials in erecting 
a townhouse at Newport, and other buildings. After making this agreement, how- 
ever, Taylor dreamed that as he was pulling down a particular window, one of the 
stones forming the arch fell upon him and killed him. His dream impressed him so 
forcibly that he mentioned the circumstance to a friend (who is said to have been 
the father of the well-known Dr. Isaac Watts) and in some perplexity asked his 
advice. His friend thought it would be his safest course to have nothing to do with 
the affair respecting which he had been so alarmingly forewarned, and endeavored 
to persuade him to desist from his intention. Taylor, however, at last decided upon 
paying no attention to his dream; and accordingly began his operations for the pull- 
ing down of the building, in which, however, he had not proceeded far, when, as 
he was assisting in the work, the arch of one of the windows, but not the one he had 
dreamed of, which was the east window, fell upon his head and fractured his skull. 
It was thought at first that the wound would not prove mortal ; but it was aggrava- 
ted through the unskilfulness of the surgeon, and the man died. It is very possible 
that the whole of this story may have originated from the single incident of Tay- 
lor having met with his death in the manner he did : the added circumstances of the 
previous dream, &c, are not beyond the license of embellishment of which rumor 
and tradition are accustomed to avail themselves in such cases. The accident which 
befell Taylor, however, being popularly attributed to the special interposition of 
Heaven, is said to have, for the time, saved the abbey from demolition. But the 
place soon after .passed out of the possession of the earls of Huntingdon, and has 
since been successively in that of various other families. It is, or was lately, the 
property of Lady Holland, the widow of Sir Nathaniel Holland, bart. 

Netley abbey is now a complete ruin, nothing remaining except a part of the bare 
walls. It stands on the declivity of a gentle elevation, which rises from the bank of 
the Southampton water. The walk to it from the town of Southampton, of about 
three miles in length, is one of enchanting beauty, the surrounding landscape being 



ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 



.39 




140 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

rich in all the charms of water and woodland scenery. The abbey itself is so em- 
bosomed among foliage, partly that of the oaks and other trees which rise in thick . 
clumps around it, and some of which, springing up from the midst of the roofless 
walls, spread their waving branches over them, and partly that of the luxuriant ivy 
which clothes a great part of the gray stone in green, that scarcely a fragment of it ia 
visible till the visiter has got close beside it. The site of the ruin, however, is one 
of considerable extent. Originally the buildings seem to have formed a quadran- 
gular court or square ; but scarcely anything more is now to be seen, except the 
remains of the church or chapel which occupied one of the sides. It appears to 
have been about two hundred feet in length by sixty in breadth, and to have been 
crossed at the centre by a transept of one hundred and twenty feet long. The walls 
can still be distinctly traced throughout the whole of this extent, except in the 
northern portion of the transept. The roof, however, as we have said, no longer 
exists, having fallen in about thirty or forty years ago. Its fragments, many of them 
sculptured with armorial bearings and other devices, lie scattered in heaps over the 
floor. Many broken columns still remain ; and there are also windows in different 
portions of the wall, the ornamental parts of which are more or less defaced, but 
which still retain enough of their original character to show that the building must 
have been one of no common architectural beauty. The east end is the most entir<* 
and the great window here is of elegant proportions, and elaborately finished. 
Besides the church, various other portions of the abbey, such as the kitchen, the re- 
fectory, &c, are usually pointed out to strangers ; but the conjectures by which these 
apartments are identified, must be considered as of very doubtful authority. The 
whole place appears to have been surrounded by a moat, of which traces are still 
discernible ; and two large ponds still remain at a short distance from the buildings, 
which, no doubt, used to supply fish to the pious inmates. Their retired and undis- 
turbed waters now present an aspect of solitude which is extremely beautiful, over- 
hung as they are by trees and underwood. About two hundred feet distance from 
the west end of the church, and nearer the water, is a small building, called Netley 
castle, or fort, which was erected by Henry VIII. 

But the chief attraction of Netley abbey must be understood to consist, not so much 
in any architectural magnificence of which it has to boast, as in the singular loveli- 
ness of the spot, and in the feelings inspired by the overthrown and desolate state of 
the seat of ancient piety. No mind having any imagination, or feeling for the pic- 
turesque and the poetical, but must deeply feel the effect of its lonely and mournful, 
yet exquisitely beautiful seclusion. It has accordingly been the theme of many 
verses, among which an elegy, written by Mr. George Keate, the author of the ac- 
count of the Pelew islands and Prince Le Boo, was at one time much admired. A 
living poet, the Rev. Mr. Bowles, has also addressed the ruin in some lines of con- 
siderable tenderness, which we shall subjoin : — 

" Fallen pile ! I ask not what has been thy fate, 
But when the weak winds, wafted from the main, 
Through each lone arch, like spirits that complain, 
Come hollow to my ear, I meditate 
On this world's passing pageant, and the lot 
Of those who once might proudly, in their prime , 
Have stood with giant port ; till, bowed by time, 
Or injury, their ancient boast forgot 
They might have sunk, like thee ; though thus forlorn 
They lift their heads, with venerable hairs 
Besprent, majestic yet, and as in scorn 
Of mortal vanities and shortlived cares, 
E'en so dost thou, lifting thy forehead gray, 
Smile at the tempest, and time's sweeping sway." 

The ruinof Rievaulx abbey is in the parish of Helmsley, north riding of Yorksmre, 
half-way between Ripon and Scarborough, and about twenty-five miles northeast of 
York. Several interesting associations are connected with the immediate neighbor- 
hood of Helmsley. Helmsley castle was the retreat of Villiers, duke of Bucking- 
ham, after his retirement from the court of Charles II. The adjacent town of 
Kirkby Moorside was the last scene of his humiliation, after health and fortune had 
been recklessly thrown away in a life of dissipation. Here he breathed his last, though 
not " in the worst "inn's worst room," as the lines by Pope would infer, there being 
no tradition of the humble dwelling in which the fallen duke closed his career hav- 



MONASTIC ANTIQUITIES. 



HI 





The Abbey of Rievaulx, from a Drawing by W. Westall, A.R.A 



142 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

ing been used at any period as a public house. The event is thus briefly recorded in 
the parish register : " Burials : April 17, 1687. Georges Vilaus, lord dooke of Book- 
ingham." Helmsley castle stood a siege during the civil war, but was compelled to 
surrender to the parliamentary forces, and was afterward dismantled. 

Rievaulx Abbey was one of the largest monastic structures in England. The 
probable length of the nave is estimated at 150 feet, and the whole length of the 
the building at 330 or 340 feet. The choir is 144 feet long and 63 feet wide, and 
the transept 118 feet long and 33 feet wide. The church and the refectory arc the 
the principal parts of the edifice which remain. The abbey was founded in 1181, 
by Sir Walter Espee, whose only child, a son, was killed by a fall from his horse, at 
Kirkham ; in consequence of which the afflicted parent resolved to devote the 
greater part of his possessions to religious purposes, and he accordingly built abbeys 
at Rievaulx and Kirkham, in Yorkshire, and at Warden, in Bedfordshire. Rievaulx 
is situated in a valley, the surrounding heights being covered with wood to their 
summits. The village is close to the abbey, and consists of a few scattered cottages, 
but they do not destroy the harmony of the picture, which, with the ruin, the Avooded 
heights, a winding river, and two picturesque bridges, form a combination of objects 
that can not fail to strike the least practised eye. One of the Duncombe family, 
in whose possession the site has remained since 1695, formed a fine terrace on the 
hill which overlooks the ruins. It is said by many to be the finest in England. 

On the monasteries of the first class being dissolved, Rievaulx, the revenues of 
which were valued at 378/. 10s. 2d. per annum, was seized by the crown, and after- 
ward granted in exchange to a descendant of the Espee family. The duke of Buck- 
ingham obtained possession of it through his marriage, and the trustees of George, 
the second duke, sold it in 1695 to Sir Charles Duncombe, an ancestor of Lord Fe- 
versham, the present owner. 

The dissolution of monastic establishments in England, in the reign of Henry VIII., 
is a circumstance of great historical interest, and closely connected with the circum- 
stances under which considerable property is now held, both by laymen and for ec- 
clesiastical purposes. The question of breaking up the monasteries was formally 
proposed by Cromwell, one of the ministers of Henry VIII., in the year 1535, and a 
general visitation of the monasteries by commissioners was ordered. It was first 
determined to meddle only with the smaller monasteries; and a bill passed both 
houses of parliament, in 1536, giving to the king all monastic establishments, the 
clear yearly value of which did not exceed 200/. with the property belonging to 
them, both real and personal, vesting the possession of the buildings and lands in 
those persons to whom the king should assign them by letters patent; but obliging 
the grantees, under the penalty of ten marks per month, to keep on them an honest 
house and household, and to plough the same number of acres which had been 
ploughed on an average for the last twenty years. 

Dr. Lingard states, in his " History of England," that it was calculated that, by 
this act, about three hundred and eighty religious communities would be dissolved ; 
and that an addition of 32,000/. would be made to the yearly revenue of the crown, 
besides the present receipt of 100,000/. in money, plate, and jewels. 

The commissioners who were appointed to put the act in execution were ordered 
to proceed to each religious house to announce its dissolution to the superior — to 
make an inventory of the effects — to secure the convent-seal and the title-deeds — 
and to dispose of the inhabitants according to certain rules. The superior received 
a pension for life: of the!*monks, those who had not reached the age of twenty-four 
were absolved from their vows, and had to seek anew the means of existence. Oth- 
ers of the monks, who were placed in another class, were divided among the larger 
monasteries, or,-in case they wished to leave the ecclesiastical state, were promised 
employment. The nuns were more hardly dealt with : each received a single gown 
from the king, and in oth,£r respects were thrown upon the world, or the support of 
friends. >v . 

The people were strongly affected, in many parts of England, by the consequen- 
ces which resulted even from the dissolution of the smaller monasteries. The poor 
had formerly been fed at these establishments, and were now deprived of this ancient 
resource. Persons of property contended that the wealth of the monasteries ought 
not to fall into possession of the crown, but that it should revert to the representa- 
tives of the ancient donors. In the autumn of 1536, the state of public feeling was 
manifested by an insurrection in the northern counties, which was joined, most proba- 



MONASTIC ANTIQUITIES. 14 d 

bly from inclination, by the archbishop of York, several noblemen, many knights, 
and most of the gentry; indeed, all whose attachment to ancient manners and cus- 
toms was deeply rooted could not fail to desire that the progress of innovatinc 
should be checked. The insurrection, though of a formidable nature, was ultimateh 
put down. This movement is generally spoken of as the " pilgrimage of grace,'' tru 
banners of the insurgents being painted with the image of Christ crucified" and tin 
chalice and host, the emblems of their faith. In many districts they placed thi 
ejected monks in their former convents. 

It appears now to have been the determination of the king and his ministers t\ 
deal with the larger monasteries in the same way as with the smaller ones. For a 
considerable period, commissioners were at work investigating the circumstances 
and condition of each establishment. In 1539 a bill was brought into parliament 
vesting in the crown all the property, moveable and immoveable, of the monasteries, 
and by the spring of the year 1540 it had been surrendered into other hands. 

Dr. Lingard gives the following scale of pensions allotted to the ejected inhabit- 
ants of the monasteries. To the superiors, from 266/. to 6/. per annum; priors of 
cells, generally about 13/., and in a few instances 20/. ; to the other monks, pensions 
of 6/., 4/, or 21., with a small sum to provide for immediate wants on their depart- 
ure. The pensions to nuns averaged about 4/. It should be recollected that thp 
value of money has greatly changed since that period. 

As soon as an abbey was surrendered, the commissioners, according to Burnet, 
proceeded to break the seal and assign pensions to the members. The plate and 
jewels were reserved for the king ; the furniture and goods were sold. The abbott's 
lodging and the offices were left standing for the convenience of the next occupant : 
the church, cloisters, and apartments for the monks, were stripped of the lead and 
every saleable article. 

It appears from Rymer that the lands sold at twenty, the buildings at fifteen 
years' purchase ; the buyers were to hold of the crown, paying a reserved rent. 

According to the "Liber Regis," and other authentic sources, the annual revenue 
of all the suppressed monastic houses amounted to 142,914/. 12s. 9^d., being about 
the one-and-twentieth part of the whole rental of the kingdom, if the estimates of 
Hume be correct, which assigned the amount at 3,000,000/. The amount of the 
estimates of the annual value of real property of England and Wales, as assessed in 
1815, was about 52,000,000/. 

Eyland abbey is in the North Riding of the county of York, and not more than 
five miles from Rievaulx Abbey. As the history of these monastic establishments, 
which were once so numerous in England, generally contains some indications 
of the manners and habits of early times, and affords data for showing the changes 
which have taken place in the state of society, we shall give a brief account of the 
old abbey at Byland, from the records of one of the abbots, which may be seen at 
greater length in Dugdale's " Monasticon." 

Byland abbey appears to have been founded in the twelfth century by Roger de 
Mowbray, at the instance of his mother. The abbot and twelve monks of Furness 
abbey, in Lancashire, having been disturbed by the incursions of the Scots, fled to 
York, where they were for some time entertained by the archbishop, by whom they 
were recommended to the protection of De Mowbray. Being a minor, however, his 
mother received them at her castle, and she afterward sent them to a near relation 
of her own, who had been a monk at Whitby, but who then led an eremetical life 
at Hode. Here she supplied them with necessaries until her son attained his major- 
ity, when he granted them a sufficient portion of land for their support. The monks 
soon afterward procured, at a general chapter of their order, held in France, an ex- 
emption from their former subjection to Furness. They remained at Hode several 
years, when, on the ground that their former grant did not afford them sufficient 
space, the church and town of Byland were granted to them for the purpose of build- 
ing an abbey. Here they were too near the abbey of Rievaulx, being within the 
sound of its bells; and as there were some other inconveniences attached to the 
place, De Mowbray granted them another piece of land on which to erect their mon- 
astery, and they then built a small church, a cloister, and houses. Their possessions 
were soon considerably increased, and they added to the value of them by clearing 
the woodland and draining the marshes. They removed, in 1177, a little to the east- 
ward, where the abbey of Byland, the remains of which are represented in the en- 
graving, was built and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. 



.144 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

At this period the pope *^.^^J^'££$$£ftm 

England, and the ; monks of B^and seem to -- rece.ved^ ^ p J 

the head of the church. Fope Aiexaiia « j- ^ p aYme nt of tithes on the 

such lands as they owned or rented .Gregory ^ Irom J^ other con fi rme d 

produce of mines which they ; held m heir ^own hands , ana ^ 

hem in the enjoyment of these P"^ 1 X mn nks and their servants freedom from 

Xlf M U~^r literal that they ^J— -^^ 
cultivation ; and as there did not exisla larg daj >te* the pre em ^ 

farmers until the period just ««^>, e iS*SSi.* g T ™ to occupation ">ey 
forced, in some measure, «P»"*e religious commumue,. . 

would bring '.PSStSSC s owlv tatrodt'ed in S agricul,ure would 
nSfpro^lAV?^^ 

turists there is every reason to conclude «u i. npenor to JW^gJ the 
the gardens attached to the monasteries ^J^'S™ The consequence 
earirest improvements in that useful department of husband y_ 1 

was, that the religious houses increased m wealth, .and beeomm m ^ 

lost their empire over the : religious «» th a »/■ ""^ it ; bk ,. They 
jealousy by the parochial clergy. The monks ^ "° e ™' d an /, ook „„ exces- 
ielievea the poor, were moderate in the rents which "^JgdSfitbWtad outlived 
sive fines in the leases which they renewed. But at the d.ssomuM they . 

die useful purposes to which they were ^ """"Jfe, ««," ernploymen.s, and 
which .he laity were beginning to receive #Hg ThffcScTof the mo- 

KfSffift^SS bmtrfhm/h wSSSSL. iess holy, less apostolical, nor 

less respectable." „ D „ t pr1 th dissolution of the monasteries have al- 

throw as their reformation." AnoA "^? X" th Tt Ms was an undue propor- 

^{^o^e^^hZere the least able to offer resistance; but the whole. 

^J^SSS in ^-mberofmonast^^^ 

solved, and by the king's letters-patent, dated January 28, 1537, it was 



MONASTIC ANTIQUITIES. 



145 




146 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

but two years afterward it was surrendered, when the abbot and monks received pen- 
sions. There were seven bells in the abbey, and it contained five hundred and sixteen 
ounces of plate. The lead which was stripped off the building amounted to one hun- 
dred fodder, and, with'the bells and plate, was sold for the king's use. The gross 
income of the institution was 295/. 55. 4</. ; the net income, 238/. 9s. 4rf. 

Mr. Moore, an antiquarian, who visited Byland abbey about the year }789, states, 
that it is of a date and style of architecture nearly coeval with Rievaulx, and that it 
is nearly five miles distant from it across a moor, from which, in descending a steep 
hill, the prospect of a fine country and of this abbey opens itself, and presently leads 
to the village. All that remains of Byland is comparatively a fragment, but it is 
sufficient to show that the abbey must have been a fine specimen of church archi- 
tecture. The doorway is richly ornamented, and the windows elegantly formed. 

St. Alban's is, in many respects, one of the towns of England most dignified by his- 
torical associations. It was one of the principal places of the ancient Britons before 
the Roman conquest; and, within twenty-one years after the invasion of the island, 
was raised by the Romans to the rank of a city, under the name of Verulam. Many 
considerable fragments of the Roman Verulam still exist, at a short distance from 
the present town, particularly a large piece of wall, constructed of Roman tile, now. 
called Gorhambury block. Dr. Stukely, a celebrated antiquarian writer, has calcu- 
lated that about a hundred acres were included within the Roman wall. The greater 
part of the city, first built by the Romans, was demolished by Britons, under Queen 
Boadicea, in the 61st year after the birth of Christ ; but it was soon rebuilt, and the 
inhabitants continued under the protection of the Romans for a long period. In the 
persecution of the Christians under the Roman emperor Dioclcsian, in the year 304, 
Alban, a native of Verulam, who had been a soldier at Rome, suffered martyrdom 
for his faith ; and being the first Briton who had been put to death for his religious 
opinions, he is called England's proto-martyr, or first martyr, as St. Stephen is called 
the proto-martyr of Cbristianity. In 795, Offa, king of the Mercians, founded an 
abbey at Holmhurst, close by the ancient Verulam, in honor of St. Alban, and the 
place was thenceforward called St. Alban's. The abbey flourished for more than 
seven centuries. Its buildings, erected from time to time, resembled a town more 
than a religious house. It had magnificent apartments, in which the kings of the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries were frequently entertained. The annual revenues, 
during its greatest prosperity, were valued at 2,500 pounds, an enormous sum in those 
days. 

Of this immense establishment, nothing is left but the present conventual church, 
a gate-house, and a few scattered walls. The church, which was principally erected 
in the reign of William Rufus, is in magnitude equal to our largest cathedrals. It 
measures five hundred and fifty feet from east to west ; if we include a chapel at one 
end, six hundred and six feet. The extreme breadth, at the intersection of the tran- 
septs, is two hundred and seventeen feet. The exterior of this great pile is not very 
beautiful ; but the spectator is struck with its vastness, its simplicity, and its appear- 
ance of extreme age. A large part of the original edifice is composed of materials 
taken from the ruins of the ancient Verulam, consisting chiefly of Roman tile. These 
portions of the interior are very rude, and form a striking contrast to other parts which 
were finished after the elegant Norman style was adopted in this country. In this 
manner it occurs that we see at St. Alban's a mixture of the round and the pointed 
arch, in two sides of the same building, directly opposite each other. It is singular 
that, as one side of the building fell into decay, the later style of architecture, that 
of the pointed arch, should have been used, while the more ancient round arch was 
suffered to remain on the opposite side. This want of uniformity greatly diminishes 
the beauty of the interior; but, still, many of its effects are remarkably striking, par- 
ticularly that of the vast length of the church from east to west. Some parts of the 
edifice furnish, also, beautiful and perfect specimens of the most delicate work- 
manship. 

The abbey-church of St. Alban's contains the monuments of several illustrious 
men, particularly that of Duke Humphrey, of Gloucester, the brother of Henry V. 
But St. Alban's possesses the much higher distinction of being the burial-place, as it 
was the abode, of the great Lord Bacon. The old church of St. Michael, in this 
town, contains the remains of the immortal founder of the inductive philosophy 
which delivered the human mind from the tyranny of opinions established by pre* 



MONASTIC ANTIQUITIES. 



147 




us 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



scription and authority, and led the way for every man to think for himself, and te 
rely upon the truths of established facts alone as the materials for his conclusions. 
The engraving below is a representation of Lord Bacon's monument. 




Lord Bacon's monument. 



The famous and once splendid ecclesiastical foundation of Battle abbey owes its 
origin to the great battle between King Harold and William of Normandy, which 
deprived the former of his crown, and decided, at one of the most critical stages of 
her history, the fate of England. It has been repeatedly stated i'rom Camden, in 
modern publications, that the village of Battle was known before this event, bv the 
name of Epiton. But this, as Mr. Gough many years ago remarked, is a mistake of 
the venerable antiquary, founded on an expression of the old chronicler, Ordericus 
Vitalis, who uses the term Epiton, or rather, Epitumium, merely for any field of 
battle. Ducange had long before explained the word in his glossary. As to the vil- 
lage, it is expressly stated in old documents to have gradually sprung up around the 
abbey, and there is no reason to suppose that it existed at all before that building 
was erected. There seems, however, to have been a church on or near the spot, in 
more ancient times, which was known by the name of the Church of St. Mary in 
the Wood. The neighboring country remained covered with trees, down at least to 
the Conquest ; and this church was doubtless intended for the use of the peasants 
who were s ttered up and down over the forest. 

The town of Battle, which, with the parish, contains about three thousand inhab- 
itants, stands on rising ground, about eight miles northwest from Hastings. It com- 
mands a rich and extensive prospect, comprehending the expanse of the ocean to 
the south, and a sweep of highly-cultivated country in all other directions. The 
village itself consists principally of a single street, which runs up the declivity, and 
at a little distance from the termination of which, on the top, stands the abbey. 

It was on the 28th of September, 1066, that William of Normandy landed at 
Pevensey, or Pemsey, as it is commonly called, on the Sussex coast, about nine miles 



MONASTIC ANTIQUITIES. 



149 




150 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

to the west of Hastings, at the head of the powerful armament with which he in- 
tended to win a kingdom. Harold was at the time in the north, where he had just 
achieved a great victory over another band of foreign invaders, the Norwegians, 
headed by their king, who fell in the fight. Owing, probably, to this circumstance, 
no attempt was made to oppose the landing of William. That leader, as soon as he 
had got his troops on shore, commenced the erection of a fort on the spot, and sunk, 
or as some authorities assert, burnt his ships, which are said to have been above nine 
hundred in number, without reckoning small craft. They must have been vessels 
of such size as to carry fifty or sixty men each. It was some time before Harold 
made his appearance, to repel this aggression upon his dominions. But the two ar. 
mies met at last, on the 14th of October, the birthday of the English king. Harold 
on that morning was posted on the eminence now occupied by the village of Battle, 
and his adversary on another rising ground, a short distance to the south. A very 
full and animated account of the fight which ensued (commonly called the battle of 
Hastings), has lately been given in an able publication, entitled " The Biographical 
History of England," the writer of which has evidently made himself very com- 
pletely master of the details given by the various old French and Latin chroniclers, 
and has caught, also, not a little of their graphic spirit. The narrative is a great 
deal too long to be given entire, but we shall select a few passages, sufficient to pre- 
sent at least an outline of the course of the battle. 

" About nine in the morning, the Norman army began to move, crossed the inter- 
val between the two hills, and slowly ascended the eminence on which the English 
were posted. The banner of St. Peter, as a presage of victory, was borne in the van 
by Tonstain the Fair — a dangerous honor, which two of the barons had successively 
declined. Harold beheld them gradually advance, and as the third division appeared, 
he broke out into violent exclamations of anger and dismay. He had the advantage 
of the ground, and having secured his flank by trenches, he resolved to stand upon 
the defensive, and to avoid all action with the cavalry, in which he was inferior. 
The men of Kent were placed in front, a privilege which they always claimed as 
their due. The Londoners had the honor of being the royal body-guard, and were 
posted around the standard. The king himself, on foot, took his station at the head 
of the infantry, determined to conquer or perish in the action. The Normans rushed 
to the onset, shouting their national tocsin, ' God is our help !' which was loudly an- 
swered by the adverse cry of ' Christ's cross ! the holy cross !' The battle soon be- 
came general, and raged with great fury. The Norman archers advancing, dis- 
charged their weapons with effect; but they were received with equal valor by the 
English, who firmly kept their ground. After the first shower of arrows, they re- 
turned to the attack with spears and lances ; and again they were obliged to retire, 
unable to make any impression on their opponents. The battle had continued with 
desperate obstinacy ; and from nine till three in the afternoon, the success on either 
side was nearly balanced. Disappointed and perplexed at seeing his troops every- 
where repulsed by an unbroken wall of courageous soldiers, the Norman general 
had recourse to a strata ;em. He resolved to hazard a feigned retreat; and a body 
of a thousand horse were ordered to take flight. The artifice was successful. The 
credulous English, in the heat of action, followed, but their temerity was speedily 
punished with terrible slaughter. Still the great body of the army maintained its 
position ; for so long as Harold lived and fought, they seemed to be invincible. A 
little before sunset, an arrow, shot at random, pierced his eye ; he dropped from his 
steed in agony, and the knowledge of his fall relaxed the efforts of his followers. A. 
furious charge of the Norman horse increased the confusion which the king's wound 
must have occasioned. For a time, the Kentish men and East Saxons seemed to re- 
trieve the fortune of the day. At length, the English banner was cut down, and the 
papal colors, erected in its place, announced that William of Normandy was the 
conqueror. It was now late in the evening, but such was the obstinacy of the van- 
quished, that they continued the struggle in many parts of the bloody field, long 
after dark. The carnage was great. On the part of the conquerors, nearly sixty 
thousand men had been engaged, and of these more than one fourth Avere left dead 
on the field. The number of the English and the amount of their loss are unknown. 
The vanity of the Normans has exaggerated the army of the enemy beyond the 
bounds of credibility ; but the native writers reduce it to a handful of resolute war- 
riors. The historians of both countries agree, that with Harold and his brothers 
perished all the nobility of the south of England." 



MONASTIC ANTIQUITIES. 



151 




152 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

The erection of Battle abbey was commenced by the conqueror in conformity, it is 
said, with a vow which he had made before the fight, but was not completed till 
.1094, in the reign of Rufus. The high altar is asserted to have been placed on the 
spot where the dead body of Harold was found. It is more probable, however, as 
other authorities record, that the spot was that on which the royal standard was 
raised at the commencement of the battle. The house was originally intended to 
contain one hundred and forty monks, but only sixty were placed in it, who were 
brought from the monastery of Marmoustier in Normandy. Many manors, chiefly 
in the counties of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Oxford, and Berks, were bestowed upon it, 
along with the most ample privileges, exemption from all taxation, the rights of free 
warren, treasure trove, and sanctuary, independence of episcopal jurisdiction, and to 
the abbot, the singular prerogative of pardoning any condemned thief or robber 
whom he should meet on his way to execution. Numerous charters, granted by the 
conqueror, by William Rufus, by Henry I., and by other kings, down to Henry IV., 
in favor of this establishment, are still preserved, copies of several of which may be 
seen in Dugdale's Monasticon. Its possessions, in course of time, were greatly ex- 
tended, through the liberality of its regal patrons. The abbot enjoyed the dignity of 
wearing the mitre, and was always summoned to parliament so long as the ancient 
religion lasted. The last individual who held the office was named John Hamond. 
He was elected in 1529, and in 1538 he surrendered the monastery to the king. 
According to the valuation which had been taken a few years before, its revenues 
amounted to 880/., according to Dugdale, but Speed says to 987/. Hamond retired 
on a pension of 66/. 13s. id. 

After the dissolution, the property was granted to a person named Gilmer, who 
after pulling down a great part of the buildings and disposing of the materials, sold 
the place to Sir Anthony Browne. The latter soon after commenced the erection of 
a dwelling-house on the site of part of the old monastery, which was finished by his 
son, the first Lord Montague. This building, however, fell afterward into ruins; 
but the estate having been purchased by Sir Thomas Webster, the ancestor of the 
present Sir Godfrey Webster, a new house was erected, which still exists. It forms 
one of the sides of what appears to have been originally a complete quadrangle, of 
great spaciousness. The entire circuit of the ruins of the abbey, indeed, is not much 
short of a mile. Only a fragment of the church now remains, from which it is im- 
possible to trace either its form or extent ; but there are still to be seen some arches 
of the cloisters, a hall called the refectory, about one hundred and fifty feet in length, 
and another building, detached from the rest, exhibiting the remains of an immense 
room, one hundred and sixty-six feet in length by thirty-five in breadth, the walls of 
which are still adorned by twelve windows on one side, and six on the other. This 
is supposed to have been the great hall, in which the abbot and his monks gave their 
more solemn entertainments. Good living seems to have been cultivated in the 
establishment. The ample kitchen still exhibits the remains of no fewer than five 
fireplaces. 

One of the most striking parts of the ruin is the great gate at the entrance of the 
quadrangle, of which the foregoing engraving is a representation. It is supposed to 
be of the reign of Henry VI., and with its battlemented towers, is a very imposing 
structure. Until about fifty years ago, the apartment over the gateway was used as 
a townhouse ; but on the 18th of September, 1794, the roof was driven in by a vio- 
lent storm of wind and rain, and it has not since been repaired. 

Howden, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, is situated about a mile from the 
Ouse. It contains twelve townships, two chapelries, and about 4,500 inhabitants. 
This church and manor were in possession of the crown at the period of the con- 
quest, and were given by the Norman monarch to the bishop of Durham, who obtained 
a confirmation of the grant from Pope Gregory VII. The bishop vested the church 
in the monks of Durham, but retained the manor. Thus the prior and convent of 
Durham obtained ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Howdenshire ; and the bishop, being 
lord of the manor, was invested with extensive secular authority within the same dis- 
trict. The clergy were at that period the most enlightened men of the age, and from 
the position which they occupied, a large share of wealth and influence fell naturally 
into their hands. The intelligence, of which they were the chief and nearly exclu- 
sive possessors, has long ceased to be the inheritance of a particular class, and none 
are now excluded from the advantages wbich it confers. But though this change 
has been going on for a long period, it has only more recently begun to work out its 



MONASTIC ANTIQUITIES. 



153 




154 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

natural results. By virtue of the manorial rights with which the bishops of Durham 
were invested eight centuries ago, they still held their copyhold courts, their freehold 
courts, and courts-baron, in Howden. The separation of the secular from the eccle- 
siastical functions of the bishops of Durham is now on the point of being effected, and 
Howdenshire will, of course, be affected by the change. 

In the thirteenth century, a bull was issued, appropriating the church of Howden 
to sixteen monks ; but the prior of Durham successfully exerted himself with the 
pope, and the church was rendered collegiate, with five prebendaries. Accordingly, 
in 1267, the archbishop of York, after setting forth that the parish church of Howden 
was very wide and large, and the rents and profits so much abounding as to be suffi- 
cient for many spiritual men, ordained that there should be endowed "for ever" five 
prebends out of its revenues, and that each of them should maintain, at his own proper 
cost, a priest and clerk in holy orders, to administer in the said church in a canonical 
habit, according to the custom of the church in York, except in matins, which they 
should say in the morning for the parish. There were five chantries, dedicated re- 
spectively to St. Thomas the Martyr, St. Mary, St. Catherine, St. Cuthbert, and St. 
Andrew. At the reformation, the net revenue of the prebends was 63/. 18s. Ad. 

The collegiate church of Howden was dissolved in the first year of Edward VI., 
and the temporalities thereby became invested in the crown. Thus they remained 
till 1582, when Queen Elizabeth granted them by letters-patent to Edward Frost and 
John Walker, their heirs and assigns for ever. The tithes are now in the hands of 
several impropriators. The living is a vicarage in the gift of the crown, and is only 
worth 163/. per year, out of which the salary of a curate is paid. The revenues ot 
the church in the thirteenth century were sufficient for the maintenance of " many 
spiritual men ;" and if, at the dissolution of the church as a collegiate institution, 
these revenues had been reserved for public purposes, some provision might now have 
been made for religious instruction in the new port of Goole, only three miles from 
Howden, which, though containing only a few years ago some half-dozen houses, 
promises to become the resort of industry and a place of extensive commerce. There 
are at this moment two collegiate churches (at Heytesbury and Middleham), whose 
utility is, perhaps, not less than that of Howden at the period of its dissolution ; but, 
instead of distributing their revenues to individuals, by which no security would be 
obtained for their beneficial employment, it is proposed by the commissioners, Avho 
have recently investigated such establishments, to render them subservient to public 
use, by bestowing their endowments in quarters in which they are really needed. 

When the church of Hbwden had got into private hands, the work of decay soon 
became visible. In 1591 the churchwardens directed a survey to be made, for the 
purpose of ascertaining " what decay the choir of Howden church is in, whether it 
be in timber, in stone, in lead, or glass." No effectual repairs appear to have resulted 
from the investigation ; for the choir becoming altogether unsafe, the parishioners, in 
1634 and 1636, fitted up the nave for the celebration of public worship. In 1696 the 
groined roof fell in, and from that time the east end has been but a venerable memo- 
rial of its former magnificence. The church is built in the form of a cross, with a 
square tower one hundred and thirty-five feet in height. The chapter-house was 
formerly the most celebrated portion of the edifice. It was built in the thirteenth 
century, and contained thirty stalls, each under a Gothic arch, separated by clustered 
pilasters, very small, and of delicate form, having foliated capitals of pierced work, 
from which rich tabernacle-work rose, and formed a canopy for each stall. The 
tower of the chapter-house fell in 1750. The whole length of the church, including 
the ruins, is two hundred and fifty-five feet, and the breadth sixty-six feet. The 
length of the choir is one hundred and twenty feet, and of the nave one hundred and 
five feet, and the breadth of each is sixty-six feet. 

Nearly close to the church the bishops of Durham had an ancient palace, which 
was their frequent summer residence. A park extended from it to the Ouse, distant 
about a mile. The ruins of this ancient edifice have been occupied as a farm- 
house. 

The old ruin of Tynemouth priory is situated in Northumberland, and stands on a 
peninsula, formed of stupendous rocks, on the north side of the mouth of the river 
Tyne, and to the east of the town of Tynemouth. It is of very remote antiquity — 
earlier than the eighth century ; but no authentic record appears to exist, respecting 
its original foundation. 

The choice of the situation, however, appears to have been dictated by two mo- 



MONASTIC ANTIQUITIES. 



155 



m 




lii i 



W\ I 

Wtlll : m Li 



V; : 



„'.r>7 >■> 



: 



1 

v 1 : 



MKyui 



;*:■;■ 



156 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

tives, security and gain. The exalted height on which the monastery stood, rendered 
it visible at sea, a long way off, in every direction, where it presented itself, as if 
reminding and exhorting seamen in danger to make their vows, and promise masses 
and presents to the Virgin Mary and St. Oswin. Thus, therefore, though during 
stormy and inclement weather the situation must have been very unpleasant, yet in 
those unsettled and credulous times it afforded the advantage of presenting to the 
eye of the sailor in distress an object toward which he could direct his prayers and 
bend his course, and also an outpost from which a hostile armament might be des- 
cried, and an alarm communicated. Neither its utility nor sanctity, however, could 
preserve it ; for in the infancy of the establishment it suffered greatly by the incur- 
sions of the Danes, by whom, as the old chronicles state, it was thrice plundered, the 
church at one time being burned to the ground. Tosti, Earl of Northumberland, in 
the reign of Edward the Confessor, is said to have rebuilt and endowed the priory 
for black canons, dedicating it to the honor of the Virgin Mary and St. Oswin, the 
remains of that saint having been found among the ruins. 

That the situation, at the mouth of a river, and on an elevated site, early recom- 
mended the place, as suitable both for military defence and religious purposes, is evi- 
dent from the fact that Robert de Mowbray, about the year 1090, fled thither, and 
defended himself within its walls, against William Rufus, against whom he had 
conspired ; but, after a time, finding that he could hold out no longer, he sought 
" sanctuary" at the altar of the church, from which, however, he was taken by 
force, carried to Windsor, and after suffering a tedious imprisonment, was put to 
death. The monastery at one time enjoyed considerable wealth. It possessed twen- 
ty-seven manors in Northumberland, with their royalties, besides other valuable 
lands and tenements. At the dissolution, in 1539, there was a prior, with fifteen 
prebendaries and three novices. The annual revenues of the priory were then esti- 
mated (separate from the abbey of St. Alban's, on which it depended) at 397/. 10s. 
5d. by Dugdale, and at oil/. 4s. Id. by Speed. The prior, on the surrender of the 
monastery, received a pension of 80/. per annum. The site and most of the lands 
were granted in the reign of Edward VI. to John Dudley, Earl of Northumberland ; 
but by his attainder in the next year it reverted to the crown, in which it remained 
till the time of Elizabeth, during whose reign it was occupied as a fortress. 

During the civil war, it was besieged and taken by the Scots, in 1644, when thirty- 
eight pieces of ordnance, and a large store of arms, ammunition, and provisions, fell 
into their hands. The garrison were allowed to march out with their baggage, but 
bound themselves to submit to the instructions of parliament. A snm of 5000/. was 
voted to repair the damages it had sustained. Colonel Henry Lilburne was made 
its drputy-governor ; but having declared for the king, Sir Arthur Hazelrig imme- 
diately marched from Newcastle against him, and stormed the place with almost 
ferocious bravery, the men entering the fortress at the very cannon's mouth. During 
the assault, Lilburne was slain. 

The approach to the priory is from the west, by a gateway tower of a square 
form, having a circular exploratory turret on each corner ; from this gateway, on 
each hand, a strong double wall has been extended to the rocks on the seashore, 
which from their great height have been esteemed in former times inaccessible. 
The gate, with its walls, was fortified by a deep outward ditch, over which there 
was a drawbridge, defended by moles on each side. The tower comprehends an 
outward and interior gateway, the outer gateway having two gates, at the distance of 
about six feet from each other, the inner of which is defended by a portcullis and an 
open gallery ; the interior gateway is, in like manner, strengthened by a double gate. 
The space between the gateways being a square of about six paces, is open above 
to allow those on the top of the tower and battlements to annoy assailants who had 
gained the first gate. 

On passing the gateway, the scene is strikingly noble and venerable ; the whole 
enclosed area may contain about six acres ; the walls seem as well calculated for de- 
fence as the gateway tower ; the view is crowded with august ruins ; many fine 
arches of the priory are standing. The most beautiful part of these remains is the 
eastern limb of the church, of elegant workmanship. The ruins are so disunited, 
that it would be very difficult to determine to what particular offices each belong. 
The ruins which present themselves in front, on entering the gateway, appear to be 
the remains of the cloister, access to which was afforded by a gateway of circular 
arches, comprehending several members inclining inward, and arising from pilas- 



MONASTIC ANTIQUITIES. 



157 




158 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

ters. After passing this gate, in the area many modem tomhs appear, the ground 
being still used for sepulture. The west gate entering into the abbey is still entire, 
of the same architecture as that leading to the cloister. The ground from the clois- 
ter to the south wall is almost covered with foundations, which, it is presumed, are 
the remains of the priory. Two walls of the church are standing ; the end wall to 
the east contains three long windows ; the centre window, the loftiest, is near twenty 
feet high, richly ornamented with mouldings, some of which are of rose-work, and 
others of the dancette, as the figure is termed in heraldry, or zigzag, a decoration 
common to old Saxon architecture. Beneath the centre window, at the east end, is 
a doorway of excellent workmanship, conducting to a small, but elegant apartment, 
which is supposed to have contained the shrine and tomb of St. Oswin. On each 
side of the door is a human head, cut in a style much superior to that of the general 
taste of the age in which they are supposed to have been executed. 

The manor of Tynemouth belongs to the duke of Northumberland. But the site 
of the monastery is said to belong to the crown ; and it was held under a lease by 
Colonel Henry Villars, formerly governor of Tynemouth. Villars obtained permis- 
sion to erect a lighthouse, and to receive one shilling for every English, and sixpence 
for every foreign ship anchoring in the harbor of Shields. It is stated by Grose, 
and the statement is repeated in the "Border Antiquities," that Villars pulled down 
many of the old buildings to obtain materials for erecting the lighthouse, an adjoin- 
ing barrack, his own house, &c, and that he stripped off the lead, which, till then, 
had covered the church. In the engraving (page 155) the relative positions of all 
these buildings are shown. That on the right being the barrack, the others can not 
be mistaken. 

Those portions of the county palatine of Durham, which are known as North Dur- 
ham, and which lie on the north side of the river Tyne, are divided into Bedlington- 
shire, Norhamshire, and Islandshire. The two latter are contiguous upon the south- 
ern bank of the Tweed, and the former consists of a district upon the southern coast 
of Northumberland. The so-called shires of Norham and Island are coextensive 
with parishes bearing the same names, and may be considered as the most ancient 
possessions of the see of Durham. The parish of Island, or Holy Island, in its south- 
ern extremity, extends to that part of the right bank of the Tweed where it falls into 
the sea at Berwick, and reaches on the east from the sea again to the Tweed on the 
north : it is divided into the five chapelries of Holy Island, the mother-church, Kyloe, 
Lowick, Ancroft, and Tweedmouth. This parish derives its historical importance 
as containing the island from which Christianity first- shed her benignant rays on 
Northumberland ; and which for four centuries was, not only the episcopal residence 
of the see which is now known as the bishopric of Durham, but the repository of 
learning in the north of England. This island the ancient Britons called Inis Medi- 
cante, but its familiar appellation was Lindisfarn, until the sanctity of its inhabit- 
ants procured for it the name of Helichlanl, or Holy Island. According to Symeon, 
a monk of Durham, the island took its second name from the Lindis, a brook which 
empties itself into the sea from the opposite shore : " farn," the concluding syllable, 
is evidently a corruption of tbe Celtic word fahren, a recess. The greatest distance 
of Lindisfarn from the coast scarcely exceeds two miles ; it is, as Bede has properly 
described it, a semi-island, being twice an island and twice part of tne continent in 
one day : at the flow of the tide it is encompassed by water, and at the ebb there is 
almost a dry passage, both for horses and carriages. The depth of the water at ordi- 
nary high tides is about five, at spring-tides about seven feet. The path from the 
main land to the island at low water is a very precarious one, and is lengthened to 
about twice the actual distance between the two places by pools and quicksands, 
which have on too many occasions proved fatal to travellers — the parish register af- 
fording numerous instances of the burials of persons found drowned in crossing the 
sands to the island. The intervening space presents at low water a dull and dreary 
appearance, the only objects to enliven the scene being an occasional fisherman, his 
wife, or children, slowly picking their way across the sands, the rising of a flock of 
wild ducks, which they have disturbed, or the silver wings of a seamew sparkling in 
the sun. 

Holy Island measures, from east to west, about two miles and a quarter in length, 
and its breadth, from north to south, is scarcely a mile and a half. At the northwest 
part there runs out a slip of land of about a mile in length : the circumference of the 
entire island comprehends about eight miles. It contains about one thousand acres, 



MONASTIC ANTIQUITIES. 159 

above one half of which is, from the violence of the tempests, covered with sand, and 
produces nothing but bents ; even this part, however, is valuable as a rabbit warren : 
the remainder is enclosed and cultivated. The enclosures bear such good crops that 
the inhabitants seldom find it necessary to have recourse to the main land for their 
corn, or the other ordinary productions of the ground. The island consists chiefly 
of one continuous plain, inclining to the southwest. The village stands upon an ac- 
clivity, which rises abruptly from the shore ; and at the southern point of it there is 
a rock, of a conical figure, which rises almost perpendicularly to the height of sixty 
feet, and has on its lofty crown a small fortress or castle. A little to the northeast 
of the village there are four caves, the longest of which is upward of fifty feet long, 
and the entrance of which is just large enough to admit a man ; over these caves a 
rock rises to the height of forty feet. The town or village of Holy Island consists of 
a few irregular narrow streets, the names of which are still preserved, although their 
importance has long departed, branching off from a small square called the Market- 
Place. In the middle of this place, a few years ago, there stood the stump of an old 
market-cross, which was called the " Petting Stone," over which newly-married 
people were made to leap for luck. Modern improvement has, however, removed 
this remnant of ancient times, and erected in its place a handsome new cross of Nor 
man character. The town contains about one hundred houses, the great proportion 
of which are the humble cottages of the fishermen, who with their families constitute 
the chief part of the population (amounting to between four hundred and five hundred 
persons) of the island. There are very few good houses of ancient date ; but the 
island having of late years become frequented as a bathing-place during the summer 
months, new ones have been erected, to be let out as lodgings for the accommodation 
of the visiters. Many of the fisherwomen's cottages are evidently of ancient date, not 
a few having, in all probability, witnessed the priory in its glory ; while in the more 
modern ones is to be seen here and there a window with stone stanchells, or an old 
weather-beaten oak door, which prove themselves to have been part of the disman- 
tled church. The old houses thus give to the town an air of antiquity, while those 
which have been more recently erected bestow on the whole place a neat and com- 
fortable appearance. The shore is in many parts excellent for bathing, and the situ- 
ation is both healthy and romantic. The north and east parts of the coast are formed 
of perpendicular rocks, and the other sides sink by gradual declinations toward 
the sea. 

The castle stands upon a rock, and is accessible only by a winding pass cut on its 
southern side ; it belongs to the crown, and is still looked on as a fortress by govern- 
ment, although it would avail little against any ship of considerable force: a few 
soldiers are generally stationed in it, in connexion with the garrison of Berwick. 
Formerly its battery was mounted with seven or eight large guns, but these imple- 
ments of war were removed by order of the war office in the year 1819, and have not 
been since restored. The magnificence of the prospect from the walls can not be 
surpassed : on the north the eye is arrested, after passing over an arm of the sea 
about seven miles in breadth, by the ancient and fortified town of Berwick ; on the 
south, at about an equal distance, Bamborough castle appears, elevated on a project- 
ing promontory; toward the east there is an unlimited view of the sea, some times 
rough and gloomy, and at other times calm and resplendent, and scattered over with 
vessels; while on the west, after passing over the narrow channel by which the land 
is insulated, the shore exhibits for miles the rich and fertile districts of Islandshire 
and Norhamshire, ornamented with the seats of the descendants of the ancient border 
chiefs, with their neat villages and accompanying woodlands. The antiquity of the 
castle is not accurately known ; but a stronghold is known to have been erected 
where the present building stands, in order to protect the monks from the incurs ions. 
of the Danes. It was formerly of considerable importance, for, according to Rush- 
worth (who was the recorder of Berwick), it was seized by order of parliament, during 
the civil war with Charles I., " it being of such consequence to the northern parts of 
the kingdom." During the rebellion of 1715, the seizure of this castle was planned 
and executed by two men only, friends of the Pretender, whose courage and sagacity 
would doubtless have entitled them to high honors, had the cause been successful. 
The account is curious and interesting, and worthy of being more extensively Known 
than it is. Lancelot Errington, a catholic of ancient and respectable family in North- 
umberland, but who himself was in comparatively reduced circumstances, having 
been promised assistance by Mr. Forster, the rebel general, moored a ship, of whicb 



160 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

he was master, in Holy Island harbor, and, being well known in that part of the 
country, went, under pretence of wanting something, to the castle, the garrison of 
which consisted of a sergeant, a gunner, and ten men, and invited the sergeant and 
the men ofT duty on board his vessel. The invitation being accepted, he plied hi3 
guests so well with brandy that they were soon incapable of any opposition, and 
were secured. Lancelot, accompanied by his nephew, Mark Errington, then re- 
turned to the castle, where they knocked down the two sentinels, surprised and 
turned out the gunner and three other soldiers, and shutting the gates, hoisted the 
Pretender's colors as a signal of success, and anxiously awaited the promised succor. 
Instead, however, of a reinforcement, a party of the king's troops arrived from Ber- 
wick, and the captors were obliged to retreat over the walls of the castle, hoping to 
conceal themselves among the seaweeds until it was dark ; but the' tide rising, they 
were obliged to swim for their lives. They reached the rocks, in scrambling up 
which they were discovered and fired on ; Lancelot having been wounded, they were 
both taken and conveyed to Berwick jail. While thus confined, they managed to 
dig a burrow under the foundations of the prison, depositing the earth taken out in 
an old oven. Through this burrow they escaped, and having reached the Tweed, 
they actually rowed themselves across the river in the customhouse boat, which 
when done with was turned adrift. They reached Bamborough castle, closely pur- 
sued by the soldiers ; there they were concealed nine days in a peastack, a relative 
supplying them with food every night. With great difficulty they at last reached 
Sunderland, and got shipping for France. After the rebellion was suppressed, they 
took the benefit of the general pardon, and returned to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where 
Lancelot died, in 1746, of grief, on hearing of the victory of Culloden. 

The bishopric of Lindisfarn was founded A. D. 634, and the island was the resi- 
dence of fourteen bishops, among whom was the celebrated St. Cuthbert, whose 
miraculous powers, both in life and death, Bede and the ancient chroniclers of the 
see of Durham have celebrated in stories calculated for the age in which they lived. 
Toward the close of the tenth century the see was removed (from the incursions of 
the Danes) to Chester le Street, and afterward to Durham : and in the commence- 
ment of the following century, Lindisfarn, so long the residence of episcopacy, became 
the seat of the priory of Holy Island. This priory, interesting and beautiful in its 
decay, was erected about the year 1094, and belonged, down to the time of its disso- 
lution, to the monks of the order of St. Benedict. The Holy-Island monks, like those 
inhabiting all the border monasteries, appear to have seen great prosperity, as well 
as much adversity : at one period rich, with an income of 200/. per annum, at a time 
when such a sum was equivalent to 2000/. of the money of the present day ; at an- 
other period their revenues were reduced to 321. per annum, when the currency of 
the realm was in a state of great depreciation. After the removal of the see from 
the island, and from the establishment of the priory, the clergy of Lindisfarn lost the 
character they had before acquired for learning and piety. The antiquarian zeal of 
Mr. Raine has discovered that " their little library could at no period boast of a clas- 
sical author, a chronicle, or one of Bede's numerous treatises ; and it is a positive 
fact, that, from the year 1416 to the dissolution, they were frequently, and in fact 
generally, without a bible. They had their service-books for the church, some of 
which contained select portions of scripture as lessons, gospels, and epistles, to be 
periodically read and commented upon, and beyond them nothing more was necessa- 
ry." After the dissolution of monasteries, the possessions of the priory were granted 
by Henry VIII. to the dean and chapter of Durham, to whom they still belong. 

The priory of Holy Island is, as might be supposed from the date of its erection, 
of the Norman style of architecture — 

" A solemn, huge, anil dark red pile, 
Placed on the margin of the isle." 

In repairing the chancel, about the year 1441, the monks having altered the form of 
the roof, fell into a great mistake in their chariness of buttresses for its support. The 
side walls, being unable to resist the pressure of the roof, began to incline outward, 
and the roof ultimately fell to the ground ; these walls still stand leaning outward 
in a singular manner. The church is in the form of a cross, the east and west limbs 
of which are still standing, while the other parts are totally in ruins and almost level 
with the ground. The tower of the church, which itself was the prototype of Dur- 
ham cathedral, stands in the centre, and was supported by two large arches, stand- 



MONASTIC ANTIQUITIES. 



161 




Ruins of the Priory of Lindisfarn. 

ing diagonally : one of them is yet standing, and, from its extreme lightness and fine 
proportions, forms the most beautiful object in the ruins. The arch is somewhat 
similar to that of the strangers' hall at Canterbury. Hutchinson, in his " View of 
Northumberland," thus notices it : " These ruins retain at this day one most singular 
beauty: the tower has not formed a lanten, as in most cathedrals, but from the an- 
gles arches sprang, crossing each other diagonally, to form a canopy roof. One of 
these arches yet remains, unloaded with any superstructure, supported by the south- 
east and northwest corner pillars, tnd ornamented with the dancette or zigzag mould- 
ing, extending a fine bow over the chasm and heap of ruins occasioned by the falling 
in of the aisles." The whole structure was, unfortunately for the ornaments, built 
of a soft, red freestone, the consequences of which have been noticed by Sir Walter 
Scott, in " Marmion :" — 

" Not but the wasting sea-breeze keen 
Had worn the pillar's carving quaint, 
And mouldered in his niche the saint, 
And rounded witli consuming power 
The pointed angles of each tower; 
Yet still entire the abbey stood. 
Like veteran, worn, but unsubdued." 
11 



162 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

This venerable ruin is, in despite of the exertions of the lord of the manor, fast dis- 
appearing ; and, in all probability, before the lapse of another half century, the walls 
of it remaining will be level with the earth. 

On the handsome bridge of nine arches, which spans the river Calder, at Wake- 
field is the very beautiful remain of Edward IV. 's chapel. It is undoubtedly ancient, 
and stands upon the site of one built by Edward III., which appears to have been 
pulled down and rebuilt by Edward IV., in the most elaborate style of the architec- 
ture of his period, in memory of his father, Richard, Duke of York, who was slain 
near Wakefield, in the battle fought between him and Margaret of Anjou, the bold- 
spirited wife of Henry VI., in 1460. Edward IV. is therefore looked upon as the 
founder of the chapel. According to the following quotation from Leland, it should 
appear that the chapel was not alone indebted to the liberality of the monarch for 
its support. He says: " On the est side of the bridge is a right goodly chapel of our 
Lady, and two cantuarie [chantry] prestes founded in it of the fundation of the 
townesmen, as sum say, but the dukes of York were taken as founders, for obteyning 
the mortemayn. I heard one say that a servant of King Edward [IV.], or else of the 
Erie of .Rutheland, brother to King Edward, was a great doer of it." Ten pounds 
per annum was the amount of the endowment for the payment of the two priests, 
which was withdrawn at the dissolution of the monasteries, since which period, the 
chapel has been allowed to fall into decay, and even within the last few years, its 
beautiful ornaments have received considerable damage. The chapel stands about 
the centre of the bridge, and as we have seen, on the east side. It projects over, 
and partly rests on the starlings of the bridge. Its general architecture is of the 
richest Gothic. Its dimensions are, in length about ten yards, in breadth eight. The 
east window, which overhangs the river, is adorned with traceries of the most deli- 
cate kind, and with perforated parapets. The west front is, however, the great fea- 
ture of the building. It is divided in the lower part, by buttresses, into five com- 
partments or recesses, having lofty pediments and pointed arches, in relief, with the 
spandrils richly flowered. Above is an entablature, with five smaller compartments 
with rounded arches, in relief, representing subjects from scripture. The whole is 
surmounted with battlements, part of which, however, as well as of the entablature, 
ha"p been broken away. These different portions of the front are all enriched with 
such a profusion of delicately-beautiful ornaments, as to make the chapel quite an 
architectural srem. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CROSSES. 

Crosses are a class of antique structures, kindred to that of abbeys. There are 
several of these still remaining in Britain. A writer remarks: The origin of mar- 
ket crosses seems obvious enough. The figure of the cross, during the middle ages, 
was the grand symbol of religion. It was placed everywhere — in churches, church- 
yards, by the roadside, to stimulate the devotions of the traveller, on spots where 
some event had occurred, the memory of which it was wished to perpetuate ; and in 
public places where the people wpre in the habit of congregating. The use of the 
cross, therefore, to indicate the market-place, arose very naturally from the venera- 
tion paid to it. It served as a rallying point, and was also intended to excite devo- 
tional feelings in tnose assembled for the purpose of buying and selling. A large 
number of market towns were in the immediate neighborhood, and stood upon the 
soil, of abbeys. The country-people who came to dispose of their grain, poultry, 
eggs, butter, &c, had to pay certain tolls on their commodities; these were gener- 
ally collected at the " cross," or market-place ; and frequently advantage was taken 
of the assembling of the people, to address them from the cross on some particular 
topic. By an easy transition, the term " cross" came to be applied, not to the figure 
which marked the spot, but to the entire spot itself. Almost every town in Britain 
has its " cross," or public place. 



CROSSES. 



im 




164 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



The first crosses were simple in their construction ; if composed of stone, con- 
sisting merely of a single shaft, generally slightly elevated, and surmounted by a 
cross. Gradually they were converted into little structures, or buildings, of various 
forms, and adorned according to the taste or liberality of the founders. During the 
latter days of the Gothic, or rather the ecclesiastical architecture, the idea was 
adopted of enlarging the area where the cross stood, and arching it over, so as to afford 
a shelter during inclement weather, or, in the words of Leland, " for poore market 
folkes to stand dry when rayne cummeth." At the dissolution of the monasteries, 
almost every market-town in England had a cross, some of them exceedingly rich 
and elaborate in their architectural details. It is a matter of regret to the antiquary, 
and the lover of ancient monuments, that so few have been preserved. 




Winchester Market Croaa. 



CROSSES, 165 

The engraving represents the market-cross of Winchester. In its adaptation to 
the uses of a market, it must yield to those of Chichester and Malmesbury ; but as 
a work of art, it is undoubtedly the finest market-cross remaining in England. It is 
much to the credit of the then inhabitants of Winchester, that they saved it from 
destruction in 1770. Some commissioners of pavements had either sold it, or bar- 
gained for its removal, and the workmen had actually asembled in order to com- 
mence operation, when a number of the citizens gathered together, and by their 
spirited remonstrances, frustrated the attempt. 

Mr. Britton terms the Winchester market-cross "a masterpice of art." The pe- 
riod of its erection is uncertain ; but it is assigned, with every appearance of proba- 
bility, to the fifteenth century. It is supposed that a more ancient cross occupied 
the site before the erection of the present one. The cross stands in the High street 
of Winchester, nearly in the centre of the city. It is elevated on five stone steps, 
each of which gradually diminishes in size, and consists of three stories, adorned 
with open arches, niches, and pinnacles, surmounted with small crosses. It appears 
to have had four statues originally, but only one now remains, under one of the 
canopied niches on the second story. This is generally said to be St. John the 
Evangelist ; but ecclesiastical antiquaries are of opinion that it represents some mar- 
tyred saint, from the circumstance of the statue " bearing a palm-branch, the sure 
token of a martyr." Mr. Britton gives the following dimensions: — 

" It now measures forty-three and a half feet from the ground to the summit ; the 
lower tier of arches is seven feet ten inches high, and the statue is five feet ten 
inches." 

The cross is still popularly called the " Butter cross," the dealers in butter having 
been in the habit of vending their particular commodity here down to the year 1772, 
when a new market-house was erected. 

Chichester Market-Cross is pronounced by Britton to be " the most enriched and 
beautiful example of this class of buildings in England." It was erected by Bishop 
Story, of whom the Rev. Alexander Hay, the historian of Chichester, gives the fol- 
lowing account: — 

" Edward Story, doctor of divinity, fellow of Pembroke hall, in Cambridge, was 
consecrated bishop of Carlisle, October 14, 1468 ; and when he had sat nine or ten 
years there, was translated hither in 1478. He built the cross in the market-place, 
which, for beauty and magnificence, equalled, if not surpassed, any in the kingdom ; 
and that the city might not be at any charge with it, he left (we are told) an estate 
at Amberley, worth full 251. per annum, to keep it in repair, which, a feW years 
afterward, the mayor and corporation sold in order to purchase another of the same 
value nearer home. He founded also the grammar school in this city A. D. 1497, and 
died in January, 1502, in the 80th year of his age." 

The Market-Cross stands in the centre of the city, at the intersection of the two 
principal streets, which run east and west and north and south. " Like those of 
Malmesbury, Glastonbury, Cheddar, &c," says Mr., Britton, " it was intended to 
shelter persons who brought articles to the market. A large central column, from 
which spring numerous bold ribs, beneath a vaulted roof, and eight pier buttresses, 
support the superincumbent panelled wall, parapet, pinnacles, and flying buttresses. 
Shields, charged with the arms of the bishop already named [Story], impaling those of 
the reigning monarch, are attached to the buttresses ; while the walls between the arches 
and the outer ogee mouldings are ornamented with sculptured mitres. These mould- 
ings terminate with large and elaborate finials, which serve as brackets to pedestals 
in niches, which are surmounted by fine canopies. Three inscriptions on T ■ lets fill 
as many niches, while large clock-dials are inserted above them. The clock was 
presented by ' Dame Elizabeth Farrington, as an hourly memento of her good-will,' 
in 1724. The open turret is comparatively modern, and executed in a very bad style." 

CharingrCross was of an octagonal form and built of stone, and in an upper stage 
contained eight figures. In 1643 it was pulled down and destroyed by the populace, 
in their zeal against superstitious edifices. Upon the ground of similar zeal, Henry 
VIII. suppressed the religious houses of the kingdom, and seized their estates and 
revenues to his own use: the hospital of St. Mary Rouncival was included in this 
fate. On its ancient site stands the palace of the duke of Northumberland. It was 
built in the reign of James I., by Henry Howard, earl of Northampton, and, during 
his life, was called Northampton house. In 1642 it came to Algernon, earl of Nor- 
thumberland, by marriage, and since then has been called Northumberland house. 



166 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




CROSSES. 



167 




r Charing-Cross. 

The exact spot upon which Charing-Cross stood is occupied by an equestrian 
statue of Charles I., in bronze, executed in 1633, by Le Sceur, for the earl of Arun- 
del. During the civil wars it fell into the hands of the parliament, by whom it was 
ordered to be sold and broken up. The purchaser, John River, a brazier, produced 
some pieces of broken brass, in token of his having complied with the conditions of 
sale ; and he sold to the cavaliers the handles of knives and forks as made from the 
statue: River deceived both the' parliament and the loyalists — for he had buried the 
statue unmutilated. At the restoration of Charles II. he dug it up, and sold it to the 
government; and Grinlin Gibbon executed a stone pedestal, seventeen feet high, 
upon which it was placed and still remains. It has been customary on the 29th of 
May, the anniversary of the restoration, to dress the statue with oaken boughs. 

Malmesbury Market-Cross, represented in the engraving, stands nearly in the cen- 
tre of the town. Of this the late Mr. Cobbett says, in his " Rural Rides:" " There 
is a market cross in this town, the sight of which is worth a journey of hundreds of 
miles to see." Without going so far, however, it may be admitted to be an interest- 
ing architectural relic. It is an octangular stone building, with flying buttresses, and 
a richly-ornamented turret, which is also octangular, with a small niche on each 
side, filled with figures in basso-relievo, one of which represents the crucifixion. 
Leland says: " There is a right, fair, and costly piece of workmanship in the market- 
place, made all of stone, and curiously vaulted for poor market-folks to stand dry 
when rain cometh. There be eight great pillars, a id eight open arches, and the 
work is eight square. One great pillar in the middle beareth up the vault. The 
men of the town made this piece of" work ' in hominum memorial that is, within the 
memory of man, or in the recollection of the existing generation." Leland wrote his 
" Itinerary" in the reign of Henry VIII. "The cross was substantially repaired," 
says Mr. Britton, "by the late earl of Suffolk and Lady Northwick, about twenty 
years ago," that is, prior to 1825. 

The town of Malmesbury was one of the earliest of the incorporated boroughs of 
England, and was also early distinguished as a place of trade. It has produced sev- 
eral celebrated literary characters, among whom may be mentioned William of 
Malmesbury, so called either because he was born in the town (which is uncertain), 
or (which is the most probable supposition) from his connexion with the abbey, of 
which he was for many years the precentor and librarian. This monkish historian 



168 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. ? 1%9 

is deservedly honored by our later historical writers, who draw largely from his 
works. The celebrated metaphysician Hobbes was a native of Malmesbury. 

In the " Boundary Repoits" (1833) it is stated, " Malmesbury is not a place of any 
trade, and not a considerable thoroughfare. There are no new buildings in the sub- 
urbs, nor any indications of increasing prosperity. A cloth factory was established 
about twenty years ago, but it is now abandoned, and has been converted into a corn- 
mill. It contains very few houses which appear to be occupied by persons in inde- 
pendent circumstances, and has altogether the air of a place on the decline ; it must 
now be considered as entirely an agricultural town." But in the municipal corpora- 
tion report it is stated, that " a clothing establishment, recently revived, has given 
some stimulus to the demand for labor." 

The late Mr. Cobbett was delighted with Malmesbury, because its ancient remains 
and present state supplied him with food for the absurd idea which he used so vigor- 
ously to advocate, viz., that England was formerly much more populous than it is 
now. " This town," he says, " though it has nothing particularly engaging in itself, 
stands upon one of the prettiest spots that can be imagined. Besides the river Avon, 
which I went down in the southeast part of the country, here is another river Avon, 
which runs down to Bath, and two branches or sources of which meet here. There 
is a pretty ridge of ground, the base of which is a mile, or a mile and a half, wide. 
On each side 4 of this ridge a branch of the river runs down, through a flat of very fine 
meadows. The town and the beautiful remains of the famous old abbey stand on 
the rounded spot which terminates this ridge ; and just below, nearly close to the 
town, the two branches of the river meet, and then they begin to be called the Avon. 
The land round about is excellent, and of a great variety of forms. The trees are 
lofty and fine, so that, what with the water, the meadows, the fine cattle and sheep, 
and, as I hear, the absence of hard-pinching poverty, this is a very pleasant place." 

In the municipal corporations report, it is stated that "a court of record, with 
jurisdiction over all causes of action not exceeding forty pounds, had fallen into dis- 
use before the date of the governing charter," that is, before the eighth year of the 
rei<*n of William III., or before the commencement of the eighteenth century. 
" There is," it is added, " no other court, and, consequently, no occasion for juries, 
except on coroner's inquests. There is no police in the town, except the parish con- 
stables, and no jail." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 

Perhaps the most striking features in the various landscapes which attract the eye 
of the traveller, at almost every mile of the tour through England, are the ruins of 
the castles of kings and barons. They are memorials of the feudal times, which 
fortunately for the cause of peace, have passed, we hope for ever. 

We shall proceed to notice some of the most prominent of these. We will pre 
mise that these ruins vary in extent and magnificence ; some, too, are in much better 
preservation than others. 

Close by the side of the Medway, and immediately above the bridge, stands Roch- 
ester castle ; still, though now a bleak and roofless ruin, retaining many unobliter- 
ated features of its ancient vastness and magnificence. Its site is considerably ele- 
vated above the general level of the city; and, dilapidated as its walls are, thev 
still tower far above all the other buildings in their neighborhood, the pinnacles of 
the cathedral only excepted. The principal part of the castle may indeed, it is said, 
be seen from a distance of twenty miles. 

The fancy of the old chroniclers and legendary writers, which has adorned so 
many of the English cities and buildings with a fabulous antiquity, has not forgotten 
the castle of Rochester. In reference to the stories which have been invented with 
the view of giving it as illustrious an origin as possible, we may adopt the sensible 



170 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



171 



language of the antiquary William Lambarde, who says: "Some men (desirous 
belike to advance the estimation of this city) have left us a far-fetched antiquity 
concerning one piece of the same, affirming that Julius Caesar caused the castle at 
Rochester (as also that other at Canterbury, and the tower at London) to be builded 
of common charge ; but I, having not hitherto read any such thing, either in Caesar's 
own Commentaries, or in any other credible history, dare not avow any other begin- 
ning of this city or castle than that which I find in Beda." 

Bede's account is, that Rochester took its name from one Rof or Rhof, who was 
once lord of it ; but there is, in all probability, no foundation for this etymology. As 
Rochester, however, was a military station in the latter times of the Roman empire 
in Britain, there is reason to believe that a fort occupied the site of the present castle, 
the position of which is exactly such as would have recommended it for such an 
erection. Many Roman coins have been found within the circuit of the castle, but 
none in any other part of the city ; from which we may conclude that this was the 
only part of the city which existed in the time of the Romans. This supposition is 
still further confirmed by the language of the documents of the Saxon period, which 
speak of the place as still merely a castle. Indeed, the name Rochester is an evi- 
dence that the station was originally merely a Chester, castrum, or camp, and that 
the town has gradually grown up around the military fort. 




Gateway of Rochester Castle. 

The oldest portion of the present ruin is in the early Norman style of architecture. 
The building was probably the work of the Conqueror — one of the many strong- 
holds which he erected in all parts of the country, to maintain his foreign dominion. 
Here it appears that his illegitimate brother, the famous Odo, bishop of Bayeux and 
earl of Kent, resided, and kept his court as a sort of petty sovereign of the county. 



172 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

After the death of the Conqueror, Odo, who espoused the cause of his eldest son Rob- 
ert, and being joined by the nobility, for some time, in this castle, resisted the arms of 
Rufus. The rebels were, however, at length reduced. In the latter part of this, or 
the commencement of the following reign, the vast and lofty tower which now 
forms the principal part of the ruin, is said to have been built by the famous Bishop 
Gundulph. But if the bishop's whole expenditure, as is asserted, was only " three 
score pounds," comparatively cheap as labor and materials then were, he could not 
with that sum have advanced such a building very far. It is not improbable, there- 
fore, that the tower was completed, and indeed principally constructed, at the ex- 
pense of the archbishop of Canterbury, to whom the castle was granted by Henry I., 
and by whom it is known that extensive repairs and improvements were executed 
upon the fabric. " By means of which cost done upon it at that time," says Lam- 
barde, " the castle of Rochester was much in the eye of such as were the authors ot 
troubles following within the realm, so that from time to time it had a part in almost 
every tragedy." 

In the reign of John, Rochester castle was taken possession of, first in 1215, by 
the insurgent barons, who were, however, after some time, obliged to surrender to 
the king's forces, and in the following year, by the dauphin of France, whom they 
had called over to their assistance. In the time of the next king, Henry III., its 
strength was again attempted to be turned against the crown, having, in 1264, 
immediately after the battle of Lewes, been attacked by the victorious Montfort, earl 
of Leicester. This celebrated person, Lambarde tells us, " girded the city of 
Rochester about with a mighty siege, and setting on fire the wooden bridge, and a 
tower of timber that stood Ihereon, won the first gate or ward of the castle by as- 
sault, and spoiled the church and abbey; but being manfully resisted seven days 
together by Earl Warren that was within, and hearing suddenly of the king's coming 
thitherward, he prepared to meet him in person, and left others to continue the 
sie?e, all which were soon after put to flight by the king's army." 

The last repair of the building that is recorded to have taken place was in 1461, 
in the reign of Edward IV. Since then it appears to have been almost entirely 
neglected, and has been allowed gradually to fall into the ruinous state in which it 
now appears, though not without the waste of time having been assisted by active 
dilapidation. The ruin, which is now the property of the earl of Jersey, occupies a 
quadrangular space of about three hundred feet in each dimension. The north, 
south, and east sides had been formerly defended by a deep ditch, but that is now 
filled up. The river flows on the west side. The walls are, for the most part, built 
of rough stones from Caen, bound together by a cement which has now become ex- 
tremely hard. Their thickness varies from eleven to thirteen feet. Fragments of 
several towers still remain at the angles, and in other parts of the building ; but of 
these there is no other to be compared in magnitude to that called Gundulph's tower, 
which has been already mentioned, and which staiyls at the southeast angle of the 
castle. This is a quadrangular erection, each side of which, at the base, is not less 
than seventy feet long, while the height of the whole is a hundred and twelve feet. 
The walls incline slightly inward as they rise from the ground. Attached to the east 
angle is a smaller tower, between seventy r and eighty feet in height, which is to be 
considered as part of the same erection. These two towers appear to have contained 
the principal apartments of the castle, and they have evidently been laid out so as to 
afford accommodations of princely magnificence. 

A partition wall of five feet in thickness runs up the middle of the larger tower, 
from the ground to the roof; and the height has been divided into four successive 
stories by three floors, the marks of which on the walls are still perfectly discerni- 
ble, although the joists and boards of which they consisted have long been removed. 
They were used, it is said, in building a brew-house on the neighboring common. 
Each of the six rooms measures, in the interior, forty-six feet in length by twenty-one 
in breadth. The height of those on the ground floor is thirteen, that of those in the 
second story twenty, that of those in the third story thirty-two, and that of those in 
the fourth story sixteen feet. Winding stairs of about five feet and a half in width, 
now much decayed, occupy the east and west angles, and open into every apartment. 
There are also communications on each floor between the two parts of the tower, by 
arched door-ways formed in the partition wall. In the third story where the state 
apartments appear to have been, these arches, which are four in number, are richly 
ornamented, and are eighteen feet in height, each of the three columns which divide 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 173 

them being four feet in diameter. Through the central partition, also, a well, two 
feet nine inches in diameter, ascends to the summit of the building, communicating 
with each floor as it passes up. The rooms have all fireplaces ; but there are no 
chimneys, the vent for the smoke being merely a hole formed in the outer wall, im- 
mediately above the fireplace. Other larger openings serve for the admission of 
light and air. The roof of the highest rooms is ninety-three feet in height from the 
ground, and beyond that there is an uncovered battlement rising seven feet higher. 
Finally, the towers at the four corners ascend to the height of twelve feet above the 
termination of the battlement. 

The castle of Norwich stands near the heart of the city, and at some distance west 
from the cathedral. It occupies the termination of a long acclivity which enters the 
city from the southeast. The site of the castle is both the centre and the most ele- 
vated spot of the city ; and, placed on that commanding eminence, the old fortress 
is seen from a great distance raising its massive front far above all the surrounding 
buildings. It stands nearly, but not quite, with its walls facing the cardinal points, 
the east and west ends being only a very little inclined toward the south and north 
respectively. 

What is now, and has for many ages been, called the castle, however, is merely 
the keep, or main tower of the entire structure. In its original state, the fortress no 
doubt consisted of several courts, all surrounded with buildings. The space over 
which it once extended can still be nearly ascertained, and appears to have been 
about twenty-three acres. There were three circular fortifications, each consisting 
of a wall with a deep fosse or ditch at its base. The spaces thus enclosed formed an 
outer, a middle, and an inner court, or ballium, as such divisions were properly 
called when of this peculiar form. Near the centre of the inner ballium, which oc- 
cupied the summit of the hill, was placed the keep, as the principal part of the 
stronghold, and the refuge of its occupants, should they be driven from every other 
post. 

A great part of the space which was once included within the castle is now cov» 
ered with streets and lanes, and seems to belong to the town. It is said, however, 
that even the line of the outer ditch may still be partially traced by a close examina- 
tion of the ground ; or at least it might have been so not many years ago. The only 
entrance into the castle was by a bridge thrown over this ditch, at the north end of 
what is now called Golden-ball lane, that is, at the southeast point of the circle. 
There was also a bridge over the second ditch, opposite to that over the first; but 
this, too, has been completely swept away. That over the last of the three ditches, 
however, still remains, and is unquestionably one of the most ancient structures of 
this description in the kingdom. It consists of the half of a circle of the diameter of 
forty-three feet three inches, and is partly built of bricks, a circumstance which has 
induced some antiquaries to regard it as of Roman erection. The bricks, however, 
are not such as were used by the Romans, but of the kind found in Saxon structures. 
At the inner termination of this bridge there were to be seen, some years ago, the 
remains of two round towers, each of about fourteen feet in diameter, by which it 
had been anciently guarded. 

The east end of the castle, the greater part of which is now in a manner hidden 
from view, was the principal front of the building. Here was an oblong projection, 
measuring fourteen feet from the wall by about twenty-seven in the opposite direc- 
tion, which served as a sort of porch or outer tower leading to the greater stronghold. 
It adjoined the northern corner. The architecture of this exterior erection was znore 
ornamental than that of the body of the castle, and seemed to indicate that it had 
been raised in a more recent age ; on which account Mr. Wilkins has called it Big- 
ot's tower, after the nobleman in whose hands the' place was after the Norman con- 
quest. It does not appear, however, that the tower had been traditionally known by 
this appellation. It was adorned by three arches from the east, and one at its north- 
ern extremity. 

The main building is a parallelogram, one hundred and ten feet in length from 
east to west, by about ninety-three feet in breadth. With the exception of the east 
end, already noticed, the different sides present nearly the same general aspect — a 
basement story built of rough flint stones, and above" that three upper stories, con- 
structed of regularly-laid and ornamented freestone. Running along each is a series 
of semicircular arches, supported by small columns, and between them slight but- 



174 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

tresses ascend from the base of the wall to the top. In the upper story, the face of 
the wall behind the arches is formed into a sort of network by the stones being ranged 
in diagonal rows, and being besides ornamented with deep grooves, so as to produce 
a sort of cross-hatching. The entire height is nearly seventy feet, of which twenty- 
four feet is occupied by the basement story ; and the whole terminates in a battle- 
mented ridge. The walls are in some places thirteen feet thick. 

The origin of the building is involved in great uncertainty, and the question has 
much divided the antiquaries. " Vulgar tradition," says Thornhaugh Gurdon, in a 
short anonymous essay, published at Norwich, in 1728, " first makes it a British cas- 
tle of great strength, before Julius Caesar peeped into the nation ; and another part 
of the same tradition gives it a high founder, no less man than Julius Caesar, and that 
the great crack in the east wall of it was made at the same time the veil of the tem- 
ple was rent ; and have produced some other such-like brats of prolific imagination, 
not worthy of confutation." Gurdon has traced the known history of the castle with 
considerable learning, and his sketch has been the guide of most of those who have 
since given an account of it. The common opinion is, that the original Roman sta- 
tion in this part of the island, the Venta Icenorum, as they called it, was at Castor, 
about three miles south from Norwich ; although Mr. Blomefield, the learned his- 
torian of the county, conceives it to have been not here, but at Elmham. It can 
scarcely be doubted, however, that Castor was a Roman or British settlement, whether 
that called, in the " Itineraries," Venta Icenorum, or not. It was, in all probability, 
in reference to Castor that Norwich was so named by the Saxons. The word signi- 
fies merely the northern town. When the Saxon leader Uffa, in 576, founded the 
kingdom of East Anglia, the present county of Norfolk formed a part of it ; and it is 
ascertained that, before the middle of the following century, Anna, one of Uffa's suc- 
cessors, had a castle or royal residence here. What sort of erection this may have 
been, however, it is impossible to say. Ancient authorities state, that when Alfred 
the Great, in the ninth century, repaired and restored the different castles which had 
suffered from the devastations of the Danes, he, for the first time, built of stone many 
of them which had before been constructed only of earth ; and that of Norwich seems 
to be spoken of as one of the number. Alfred's castle, however, was, in the begin- 
ning of the eleventh century, entirely destroyed by the Danish invader, Sweyn. 
There is no mention in any record of the erection of another fortress before the Nor- 
man conquest; but from the character of the architecture of the present building, 
which is not Norman, but Saxon, it is supposed to have been the work of Sweyn's 
son, Canute the Great, who, during his peaceful reign, is known to have planted 
many such strongholds throughout the country, the better to control his subjugated 
kingdom. After the conquest, in 1077, Roger Bigot is recorded to have been ap- 
pointed constable of Norwich castle. It remained in that family until it was surren- 
dered to the crown, in 1225, in the reign of Edward III. About half a century after- 
ward, however, it was again granted to the Bigots, now become earls of Norfolk, and 
marshals of England. The other historic notices which have been preserved of it 
merely record the names of the successive noblemen who enjoyed the honor of being 
its constables. It became eventually the property of the crown, in whose possession 
it continued till the year 1806, when it was, by act of parliament, made over, in trust, 
to the magistrates of Norfolk, to be by them disposed of for purposes connected with 
the public business of the county. 

The mode in which Norwich castle appears to have been fortified is certainly 
somewhat peculiar, and ought, perhaps, to be considered as alone furnishing a strong 
proof that it is not a Norman work. Some antiquaries have even gone so far for the 
model of the three circular walls as to the temple of Jerusalem, and certain oriental 
fortresses of equal, or perhaps greater antiquity, which are stated by Josephus to have 
been constructed in this fashion. It may be observed, however, that, admitting the 
original foundation of the castle, and the form of the outworks, to belong to times 
antecedent to the Norman invasion, the keep may still have been erected since that 
event. In so far as its interior construction can now be ascertained, it appears to 
have closely resembled the castles of Canterbury and Rochester, both of which were 
Norman structures. It seems to have been, for instance, divided, as they were, into 
two parts by a strong partition, running across it from east to west, and probably 
containing a well which was open from the foundation to the summit of the building. 
Norwich castle, we may mention in conclusion, was in former times popularly known 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



175 




178 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



by the name of Blanche-Flower, in allusion perhaps to the color of the stone, which, 
when new, would be white, but more probably, we think, to the general beauty of 
its appearance. This appellation seems to have been forgotten at the beginning of 
the last century. 

Warwick castle is one of the most interesting monuments of feudal grandeur in 
the kingdom. The view which we have given (page 175) is from the river Avon, from 
whose banks the principal part of the edifice abruptly rises, being built upon the solid 
rock of freestone which bounds the river. Viewed by itself, this portion of the build- 
ing is not the most picturesque ; but taken in connexion with the ancient towers of 
the castle, with the ecclesiastical edifices of Warwicktown in the background, and 
with the Avon and its beautiful bridge in front, it would be difficult to find a scene 
more imposing — certainly impossible to find one so rich in historical associations, 
which should be also so uninjured by time. 

Passing through a road cut through the solid rock, which now presents a planta- 
tion of shrubs judiciously arranged so as to shut out the view of the castle till it is 
suddenly presented to the eye, the visiter finds himself in a spacious area, where he 
is at once surrounded by ancient fortifications, and Gothic buildings of a later date, 
now devoted to the peaceful occupation of the descendants of the old chieftains who 
here once held a stern and bloody sway over their trembling dependants. The keep, 
erected, it is said, in the days of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, is now only a picturesque 
ruin. But two towers of high antiquity are still entire, and these are associated with 
the days of baronial splendor, when many a proud man, the lord of such a castle as 
this, held the lives and fortunes of trembling vassals in dependence upon his uncon- 
trolled will. Miserable was the condition both of " the oppressor and the oppressed" 
in those evil times. One of these towers is called Caesar's — a common appellation 
of some commanding part of the fortress in many castles of remote antiquity. 







Caesar's Tower, and part of Warwick Castle, from the Island. 



Another, and the more important of these towers, is called Guy's. This building 
is perhaps the most commanding feature of Warwick castle. It is a hundred and 
forty-eight feet in height. From whatever point it is viewed, its proportions are truly 
majestic. Its real grandeur is neither advanced nor impaired by the traditions with 
which it is connected. Sir Guy of Warwick is one of the heroes of the wild romances 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



177 




12 



178 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




Guy's Tower, with the Entrance to Warwick Castle from the Lower Court. 

of the days of chivalry. He is said, as is said of most of these worthies, to have killed 
a giant and a dragon ; but his chief exploit is thus recorded in an old ballad : — 

" On Dunmore heath I also slew 

A monstrous wild and cruel beast, 

Called the Dun cow of Dunmore heath, 

Which many people had opprest." 

In these days no great importance will be attached to this passage in the good 
knight's prowess ; and, in truth, many of the bragging feats of those days, when 
people rode ahout on great horses, clad in coats-of-mail, were not a whit more val- 
uable to mankind, or evinced more real courage, than this vaunted destruction of the 
" Dun-cow." 

The staterooms, which are exhibited at Warwick castle, contain many objects de- 
serving of attention. Some of the pictures are of the first order of excellence, particu- 
larly several portraits by Vandyke. In a greenhouse, delightfully situated in the 
grounds surrounding the castle, is one of the finest and most perfect remains of anti- 
quity, a Grecian vase of white marble, dug up from the ruins of the emperor Adrian's 
palace at Tivoli, and conveyed to England by the late Sir William Hamilton (see 
engraving, " Warwick Vase"). 

On the edge of the road that leads from Warwick to Coventry is a knoll, now al- • 
most covered with trees, which was the scene of one of the most remarkable events 
in our history, which forcibly illustrates the difference between the Warwick castle 
of five centuries ago, and the Warwick castle of the present day. It was on this 
mount that Piers Gaveston, the favorite of a weak monarch (Edward II.), was be- 
headed. The original name of this place was Blacklow-hill. It is now called either 
by that name, or by that of Gaveston-hill. Piers Gaveston, the clever, but unprinci- 
pled favorite of the king, was the object of especial enmity to the great barons who 
were in opposition to the crown. After various conflicts with the monarch, they suc- 
ceeded in banishing the favorite from the kingdom ; but he having imprudently re- 
turned in 1312, tne earl of Warwick forcibly seized upon his person, in defiance of 
an express convention, and bore him in triumph to Warwick castle, where the earls 
of Lancaster, Hereford, and Arundel, repaired to hold a consultation about their pris- 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



179 




180 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

oner. His fate was speedily decided. He was dragged to Blacklow-hill, abont two 
miles from Warwick castle, where he was beheaded amid the scorn and reproach 
of his implacable and perfidious enemies. On the lop of Blacklow-hill there is a rude 
stone, on which the name of Gaveston and the date of his execution are cut in an- 
cient characters. As one now looks upon the beautiful prospect which this summit 
presents, it is satisfactory to contrast the peacefulness and the fertility that are spread 
around, with the wild appearance that the same spot must have exhibited at the 
period of lawless violence which we have described ; and to reflect that such a 
tragedy can never again occur, as long as all men are under the equal justice of the 
laws. 

The castle of York, now the county jail, stands at the distance of about two hun- 
dred yards from the eastern bank of the Ouse, and close to the Foss, which being 
brought round it in a deep moat or ditch, renders it inaccessible, except from the 
city, on the north. Historical evidence sufficiently proves, that before the Norman 
conquest York had a castle, which Drake supposes to have been the Old Bailie, on 
the opposite side of the Ouse. The castle on the present si°:ht, according to the 
opinion of the same author, was built by William the Conqueror, but probably on a 
Roman foundation. Having fallen to decay, it was repaired, or rebuilt, in the reign 
of Richard III. After it was no longer used as a fortress, it was converted into a 
county prison ; but, having fallen into a ruinous state from age, it was taken down 
in the year 1701, and in its stead a structure was erected which, so lately as thirty 
years since, was considered to form one of the best regulated and most commo- 
dious prisons in the kingdom. However, it was presented by the grand jury at the 
Lent assizes, in 1821, for insufficiency ; and this presentment was repeated at each 
succeeding assizes, until a resolution was at last passed, in the year 1824, that a com- 
petition of architects should be invited in the usual manner, in order to procure the 
hest plan for effecting the proposed improvements. That of Mr. Robinson, of Lon- 
don, was preferred, and in 1826 the works were commenced under his direction and 
superintendence. 

Prison-building is not at all times interesting in an architectural point of view; 
but the architect has, in this instance, adopted the castellated character. In enlar- 
ging the old building, he has formed his design in the style of the ancient bars or 
city-gates of York, which are much admired for their simplicity, and for the manner 
in which they preserve the architectural characteristics of the age in which they 
were built. The entrance-gatehouse, the internal elevation of which is exhibited in 
our engraving, is in some degree similar to the Monk Bar. ]t is flanked by circular 
towers of great strength, and extends seventy feet in front, by forty-six in depth. 
The prison is fireproof, the structure being entirely of stone ; the walls are five feet 
thick below, and three feet above, and no timber is used in the floors, the stone ex- 
tending from wall to wall. Each cell of the prison is covered with a single piece 
of stone five inches thick, and the cells are divided laterally by single stones nine 
inches thick. The doors are of hammered iron, and three iron guards are placed in 
each aperture in the thickness of the wall. 

The boundary wall, surrounding the new prison, the old debtors' prison, and the 
courthouse, is thirty-five feet in height above the ground, and it has towers at inter- 
vals to strengthen it. This wall is 1,350 feet in length, and is in itself a specimen 
of very superior workmanship. Upon the whole, York castle may be considered 
the strongest prison in England, and it is certainly one of the most complete and 
efficient. The criminal side affords room for one hundred and sixty prisoners, 
divided into eight classes of twenty each. The airing courts are divided by walls 
twenty feet in height. The whole building is well supplied with water and well 
ventilated. 

In all the alterations which have taken place, " Clifford's tower," which stands 
within the walls, and which we now proceed to notice, has been preserved with the 
most scrupulous care. 

A short distance within the gateway is a high mound, thrown up with prodigious 
labor, and surrounded by a strong stone wall. It appears to be elevated at least 
ninety feet above the level of the Ouse, and thirty feet above the site of the castle or 
jail and the adjacent parts of the city. On the summit of this mount stands an an- 
cient tower, called " Clifford's tower ;" and, according to tradition, one of that fam- 
ily was its first governor, after it had been built by the Conqueror for the purpose of 
overawing the city and country. The castle itself was found by Leland in a ru- 






REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES, 



181 




182 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

inous state in the time of Henry VIII. But on the commencement of the civil wars 
between Charles I. and the parliament, it was completely repaired and fortified by 
order of the earl of Cumberland, the governor of York. On the top of the tower was 
made a platform on which several pieces were mounted : a garrison was appointed, 
for its defence, and Colonel Sir Francis Cole was its governor during the siege of 
the city. After the surrender of York in 1644, it was dismantled of its garrison, ex- 
cept this tower, of which Thomas Dickenson, the lord-mayor, a man strongly at- 
tached to the cause of the parliament, was constituted governor. It continued in the 
hands of his successors, as governors, till 1683, when Sir John Reresby was appointed 
to that office by Charles II. Tn the following year, 1684, on the festival of St. 
George, about ten o'clock in the evening, the magazine took fire and blew up, and 
the tower was reduced to a shell, as it remains at this day. Whether this happened 
accidentally or by design was never ascertained ; but the demolition of the " minced 
pie" was, at that time, a common toast in the city ; and it was observed that the 
officers and soldiers of the garrison had previously removed their effects, and that 
not a single man perished by the explosion. 

The celebrated structure of Newark castle is understood to have been built, in the 
reign of King Stephen, by Alexander, bishop of Lincoln, who also erected the castles 
of Banbury, in Oxfordshire, and Sleaford, in Lincolnshire. Henry of Huntingdon 
says, that this castle, emphatically called the New-work, gave name to the town. It 
seems, at that time, to have been considered somewhat improper for an ecclesiastic 
to busy himself in the erection of fortresses ; and we are informed that Alexander 
founded two monasteries in the way of expiation. If the old writers are to be literally 
understood, the bishop was certainly the founder of the castle ; but Dr. Stukely and 
Mr. Dickinson are disposed to contend that they are not to be understood as saying 
more than that Alexander enlarged, ornamented, and fortified, a castle which pre- 
viously existed. One of the principal reasons for this conclusion is, that, even in its 
ruins, this castle exhibits at least two different styles of architecture — one much an- 
terior to the other — which was not likely to have been the case had the bishop built 
the structure from the foundation. 

Be this as it may, the king did not at all approve of the taste which Alexander and 
other bishops displayed for building and strengthening castles ; and when ultimately 
roused to act with vigor against the turbulent barons and factious ecclesiastics, he 
commenced with the latter, and either cajoled or forced them into submission, until 
he obtained possession, successively, of all their strongholds. Alexander was found 
to be very intractable, and was therefore, with his uncle, seized by the king, and de- 
tained in prison till all the fortresses of both were surrendered. The governor of 
Newark castle refused to surrender it, unless ordered to do so by the bishop in per- 
son ; but he did not persist in this determination when he received notice from the 
prelate, that the king had made avow that he (the bishop) should have neither meat 
nor drink till that fortress was surrendered. 

During the troubles in the latter end of King John's reign, the castle was in the 
hands of the royal party; and it was not only gallantly defended, but the garrison 
frequently sallied out and wasted the lands of such of the insurgent barons as had 
estates in that neighborhood. The dauphin of France, therefore, thought it neces- 
sary to send a considerable force, under the command of Gilbert de Gaunt, whom he 
had created earl of Lincoln, to take the castle. This was found to be no easy mat- 
ter ; and when Gilbert heard of the approach of the king at the head of a powerful 
army, he raised the siege and retired to London. Not long afterward the king actu- 
ally arrived, but in no condition to fight the barons, had they been there ; for on his 
march from Lynn, through Lincolnshire, a great part of his men, together with all 
his treasure, carriages, baggage, and regalia, 

" Were in the washes all unwarily 
Devoured by the unexpected flood." 

When he reached the castle, he was no less indisposed in body than distressed 
in mind, and died there on the 19th of October, 1216. Stowe adds: "Immediately 
on the king's death, bis servants, taking all that was about him, fled, not leaving so 
much of anything (worth the carriage) as would cover his dead carcase." 

When the French prince made terms with John's successor, the barons who had 
assisted the former, being left in an unpleasant predicament, seized and fortified this 
castle, with the view of making terms for themselves with the king. The protector, 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



183 




184 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

the earl of Pembroke, marched against them, and, after a siege of eight days, the 
fortress was surrendered to him, the besieged throwing themselves upon the king's 
mercy. Henry restored the castle to the see of Lincoln, which was then filled by 
Hugh de Wells, chancellor of England. 

After this, nothing of historical inierest occurs for several centuries in connexion 
with Newark castle. In 1530 Cardinal Wolsey lodged in the castle, with a large 
retinue, while on his way to Southwell, where he spent great part of that summer. 
King James I. lodged in the castle in 1602, on his way from Scotland to London. 
He was entertained by the corporation of the town, who, among other demonstra- 
tions of loyalty, presented him with a gilt cup. Here it was that he afforded to the 
English the first demonstration of those exalted notions of prerogative and kingly 
power which he had afterward such unfortunate success in inculcating into the mind 
of his ill-fated son Charles. During Charles's reign, the castle again became of his- 
torical importance. The garrison of the castle and the inhabitants of the town ad- 
hered firmly to the royal interest throughout the protracted struggle between the 
king and the parliament. It formed to the royal party a strong and most useful post, 
whence many successful excursions were made : and it became an occasional place 
of retreat for the king himself. It was twice besieged without success by the parlia- 
mentary forces under Sir John Meldrum, and when it surrendered, in May, 1646, it 
was by the king's special command ; and the governor, Lord Bellasis, obtained very 
advantageous and honorable conditions for himself and the garrison. After the sur- 
render of the king, most of the royal garrisons were ordered by the parliament to be 
dismantled, and this of Newark among the rest. Since that time it has been a ruin. 

But though in ruins, it still presents an august appearance. The parts which re- 
main entire are the southwest angle, the west wall, and a con suitable portion of a 
square tower toward the northwest corner. The western wall, which is washed by 
the river, presents in one part of it three distinct stories, or tiers of apartments, espe- 
cially toward the northwest angle. In the tower at the southwest angle, as well as 
in the whole west wall, from that to the centre tower inclusive, there is an appear- 
ance of greater antiquity than in any other part of the building now remaining; but, 
advancing from south to north, as soon as the eye arrives beyond the centre tower, a 
very manifest difference appears. Among the large Gothic windows in the principal 
remaining front, there is an excellent projecting window, which forms a perfect 
specimen of those called bays or bowers in ancient times. Underneath the great hall, 
which appears to have been one of the most recent parts of the edifice, there is a very 
curious arched vault or crypt, the roof of which is supported by a central range of 
pillars, and on the side of the vault toward the river are loopholes and embrasures. 

It is even now not difficult to discover the general outline of this once formidable 
fortress and princely habitation. It seems to have been a square of very great dimen- 
sions, and the number of its stories appears to have been at least five. Within the 
exterior walls nothing now remains, and the plot has long been used as a bowling- 
green. 

The best view of this stupendous pile is from the northwest, the direction of the 
road from York. Many circumstances contribute to deprive it of those qualities 
which constitute a very picturesque ruin — the want of wood, the extreme irregularity 
of its architecture, and, above all, the contiguity of inferior erections for the purposes 
of habitation, or the conveniences of commerce. Viewed, however, at the distance 
of a mile, whether considered as the termination of a vista, or as the first object on 
the approach to a town, it presents a grand and interesting scene to the attention of 
the traveller ; in the words of the poet — 

" Frowning majestic o'er the silvery wave." 

The parish of Farnham, in Surrey, possesses several points of interest. Its name 
is perhaps the most generally known from the celebrity of the hops produced w : thin 
its limits, while another class of people know it best as containing the principal offi- 
cial residence of the bishops of Winchester ; and antiquarians feel some interest in it 
on account of the remains of the castle built by the ancient bishops. Our present 
engraving directs our attention to the castle and palace principally. 

The manor of Farnham was given to the see of Winchester by Ethelbald, king of 
the West Saxons, and it has ever since remained the property of the bishops. The 
castle, which stands upon a hill on the north side of the town of Farnham, is said to 
have been built by Bishop Henry de Blois, the brother of King Stephen, in the year 



EEGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



185 




Ruins of Farnliam Ca-tle. 

1129. In that age bishops were nearly as much soldiers as ecclesiastics, and, in the 
spirit of the times, found or thought it necessary to erect fortresses after the manner 
of the temporal peers ; often, however, deeming it also necessary to counterpoise an 
act so exclusively secular by founding a number of ecclesiastical or learned establish- 
ments equal to that of their military structures. There are few points of interest in 
the history of Farnham castle. It was one of the fortresses which, in the unhappy 
reign of King John, fell into the hands of Louis, the dauphin of France, who pos- 
sessed himself of it in June, 1216 : but it was, not long afterward, recovered for 
Henry III. In the course of the wars between that monarch and his barons, this 
castie was held bv the latter, but, being taken by the king, was, in a great measure, 
destroyed by his directions. It was afterward rebuilt in a style of considerable mag- 
nificence, with a deep moat, strong walls, and towers. No notice of it, however, 
occurs in history until the civil war in the time of Charles I. Sir John Denham, who 
was nominated for sheriff of the county in 1642, took possession of it for the king, 
and was appointed its governor ; but he soon after withdrew to join the king at Ox- 
ford, leaving the castle to the mercy of Waller, the parliament's general, who, after 



186 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



making the small garrison prisoners, blew up the fortress on the 29th of December, 
the same year. About a year afterward, Sir William Waller is mentioned as having 
drawn up his forces in Farnham park, and as marching thence to Alton (nine miles 
distant), where he put Lord Craford to flight, and returned to Farnham with seven 
hundred prisoners, whom he secured in the castle and parish church. The next no- 
tice of the castle occurs in July, 1648, when it was referred to the committee at 
Derby house, to take " such effectual course with Farnham castle as to put it in that 
condition of indefensibleness as it may be no occasion for endangering the peace of 
the county." A rate was made in the county to defray the expense of this service. 
From this and the preceding statement, it would seem that the injuries it sustained 
during the siege, and from the subsequent blowing up, had not completely reduced 
it to a ruined condition. 

After the restoration, Bishop Morley expended 8,000/. in rebuilding and repairing 
the palace which his predecessors had erected within the precincts of the castle, and 
which had generally formed their principal residence. It is neither very handsome 
nor very convenient, and appears to have been patched up out of the building dis- 
mantled by parliament. It is quadrangular, embattled, and built of brick covered 
with stucco. The most impressive part is the great entrance tower at the west end, 
which retains the most of an ancient appearance, and confers some dignity on this 
front of the edifice. It is in that style of brick building which was brought into use 
in the reign of Edward IV. " Passing through this tower," says Mr. Carter, " and 
leaving on our right the great hall, and the communications to the state-rooms, 
chapels, &c, as having little in their present modern dress to excite the attention of 
an antiquary, we enter into the great court, where, casting our eye directly in the 
centre of our course, the keep of noble aspect mounts before us. All prepossession 
in favor of antiquity apart for an instant, there is no one visitant but must feel some- 
thing more than a bare satisfaction in the view of this scene — an inbred conviction 
of the force of simple grandeur must awaken his highest admiration." The keep 
was a polygon of no great area, and flanked with towers now demolished. The as- 
cent to it is very impressive. Within the doorway, which is of massive and plain 
well-wrought mason^ the visiter ascends through a long avenue, at the summit of 
which a second doorway leads into the area of the keep, where little more than the 
bare walls is found to recompense the labor of the ascent. This area, as well as the 
ditch that surrounds the keep, forms an excellent kitchen garden, although this 
scarcely seems the most appropriate use to which it could be applied. 

On the east side of the great court, in the basement story, there is an avenue lead- 
ing down to what was once the sally-port. Not much of the way is passable, the 
descent having been walled up at the distance of twenty or thirty feet ; but dark as 
the passage is, there is still visible some excellent arch-work, with architraves of 
many mouldings. On the south side of (he same great court appear two or three 
Saxon columns supporting pointed arches ; the other side of these columns and arches 
appear within the building. Above them is a plain pointed arched vault, and some 
niches and recesses also appear in the walls. This remnant presents a good speci- 
men of the original magnificence of the interior of the edifice. The alterations which 
have been made in the principal range of apartments by casing the walls, inserting 
windows, &c, appear to have been made about the time of Charles II., probably 
under the direction of Bishop Morley. 

The deep ditch still remains, surrounding the greater part of the outworks of the 
castle and being now dry, is, on the north side, planted with forest-trees. 

The town of Kenilworth, which contains the remains of the magnificent castle 
of Kenilworth, is situated in the county of Warwickshire, and is distant ninety-five 
miles northwest from London. The town probably owes its origin to the castle; 
and it does not appear that it ever attained to much importance. It now chiefly con- 
sists of one irregular street, about a mile in length, and its population, by the last 
census, amounted to 3,097 persons. It was an ancient demesne of the crown, and 
we are informed by Dugdale that, even in the Saxon times, it had within its pre- 
cincts a castle which stood upon a place called Horn (Holme) hill. Its origin was 
popularly attributed to a Saxon king of Mercia, of the name of Kenulph, and his 
son Kenelm, and this is countenanced by the name which the place bears. The 
common accounts, in the time of Elizabeth, consider this castle to be the same with 
that to which our present account refers; and some give a still earlier origin to the 
structure. In the "Princely Pleasures of Kenilworth," the castle is described as ex- 






REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



'IS" 




Remains of Kenilwoth Castle. 

isting in the reign of King Arthur, and the Saxon king is only mentioned as repair- 
ing and improving the structure. The Lady of the Lake, in her address to Queen 
Elizabeth, says : — 

•' I am the lady of this pleasant lake, 

Who, since the time of great King Arthur's reign, 
That here, with royal court, abode did make, 

Have led a low'ring life in restless pain. 
Till now that this your third arrival here 
Doth cause me come abroad, and boldly thus appeal - ." 

Whatever date be assigned to its origin, the castle was certainly demolished in the 
wars between King Edmund and Canute the Dane. The present structure was not 
commenced until about a century later. 

After the conquest the demesne of Kenilworth remained with the crown until the 
time of Henry I., who gave it to a Norman named Geoffrey de Clinton. Dugdale 
credits the accounts which describe him "to have been of very mean parentage, and 
merely raised from the dust by the favor of the said King Henry, from whose hands 
he received large possessions and no small honor, being made both lord chamber- 
lain and treasurer to the said king, and afterward justice of England : which great 
advancements do argue that he was a man of extraordinary parts. It seems he took 
much delight in this place, in respect of the spacious woods, and that large and 
pleasant lake (through which divers petty streams do pass) lying among them; for 
it was he that first built that great and strong castle here, which was the glory of all 
these parts, and for many respects, may be ranked in a third place, at the least, with 
the most stately castles in England." 

Even in this its first state, Kenilworth castle appears to have been of large space 
and great strength. This is shown by the extent, breadth, and depth of the outer 
moat, and by the ancient keep, called Caesar's tower, which, from its form and the 
extraordinary thickness of its walls, appears to have been of the first foundation. It 
was called Caesar's tower, as Laneham conjectures, " rather as I have good cause to 
think, for that it is square and high, formed after the manner of Caesar's forts, than 
that ever he built it." A principal and often very ancient tower in many castles is 
called " Caesar's." 

Such a structure as Kenilworth castle became a desirable acquisition to the crown. 
It did not, therefore, long remain in the possession of the founder's descendants; but 
as the Clintons continued to possess the royal favor, and to live in prosperity and 



188 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 






weahh, after they no longer held the castle, it is probable that it was relinquished 
to the king for some valuable consideration. 

When Cardinal Ottoboni (afierward pope under the name of Adrian V.) was sent 
to England by the pope, as legate, to endeavor to compose the differences between 
Henry and the barons, the king gave orders for Kenilworth castle to be given up to 
Walter Gray, archbishop of York, for the legate's use. It does not appear, how- 
ever, that he occupied it, but appointed Richard de Gray to keep it for him. 

Not long after this, the king appointed the famous Simon de Montfort, earl of 
Leicester, to be governor of the castle, and afterward granted it for life to him and 
his wife Eleanor, who was the king's sister. This earl is stated to have " wonder- 
fully fortified the castle, and stored it with many kinds of warlike engines, till that 
time never seen nor heard of in England." The earl afterward took a prominent 
part in the memorable revolt of the barons, the details of which, although of great 
importance in history, had Utile connexion with Kenilworth. When, however, the 
barons were defeated at Evesham, in August, 1265, the earl and his eldest son were 
among the slain, and it became the scene of very important operations. The earl's 
eldest surviving son, Simon de Montfort, continued in the castle, into which he re- 
ceived those that fled from the battle, and the friends and followers of persons killed. 
Their daily increasing numbers, and their exasperation of mind in consequence of 
" the death of their kindred and familiars," gave great strength and confidence to 
Simon, who " sent abroad his bailiffs and officers like a king — his soldiers spoiling, 
burning, plundering, and destroying, the houses, lands, and lordships of his adversa- 
ries, driving away their cattle, and imprisoning many, forcing them to what fines he 
pleased for their liberty." 

This state of things continued until about midsummer, 126b', when the king, hav- 
ing become seriously alarmed for the* consequences, determined to lay siege to the 
castle, and to that end marched with an army to Warwick, where he remained until 
he was joined by reinforcements from different parts of the country. Simon de 
Montfort, feeling that he should not be able to hold out long unless he could collect 
a force sufficient to raise the siege, left Kenilworth with the intention, it would 
seem, of going to France, though he does not appear to have gone further than the 
Isle of Ely. He encouraged Henry de Hastings, whom he left governor in his ab- 
sence, to make a stout defence, and assured him of timely relief. Meantime, Prince 
Edward surrounded the castle ; and while he determined, if need were, to starve the 
garrison into a surrender, he took care that there should be abundance in his own 
camp. Among the items of provision, we find that the sheriff of Norfolk was com- 
manded to cause thirty-six tuns of wine to be brought thither from Lynn. 

The king, wishing to prevent the effusion of blood, sent to offer very favorable 
terms to the besieged; "but," says Dugdale, "they did not only slight the king's 
offers, but maimed the messenger, and with much resolution defended themselves 
against all the assaults that were made, having engines that cast forth stones of 
great bigness, and making bold and frequent sallies, did very much mischief: nei- 
ther could the sentence of Ottobon, the pope's legate, who was there in the camp, 
nor the king's power, any whit daunt them." 

The king, being " much moved" at this reception of his conciliatory measure, de- 
termined to storm the castle. But about three weeks were necessary to enable the 
sheriff to collect the masons and other laborers who, with their hatchets, pickaxes, 
and tools, would be required in this service; and in the meantime the garrison began 
to suffer greatly, not only from want of provisions, but in consequence of a pestilen- 
tial disease which raged among them, and of which many died. When the king 
heard of this he renewed his overtures, with assurances of kind treatment if they 
would surrender. In answer to this, they proposed that all acts of hostility should 
cease for the present, and that they should meantime be allowed to send to Simon 
de Montfort, to know whether he would relieve them by a fixed day or not ; and if 
he did not, they engaged to deliver up the castle. The king consented. But before 
the messengers despatched to Simon could return, the flux and other grievous dis- 
eases increased so much among the inmates of the castle, that those who had hith- 
erto escaped were unwilling to hazard the infection, and having little hope that 
Montfort would be able to assist them, surrendered the castle to the king, on condi- 
tion that the governor and all the inmates " should have four days' time to carry out 
all their goods, and go freely away with horse, arms, and all accoutrements, through- 
out any part of the kingdom." Thus ended this memorable siege, which lasted full 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



189 




190 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES 

six months, and the whole history of which indicates the great strength of the place, 
which after all was overcome by disease and famine rather than by the forces of the 
king. 

Very soon after the king had gained possession of the castle he bestowed it upon 
his youngest son Edmund, earl of Lancaster, who was also on this occasion created 
earl of Leicester. At this time (7th Edward I.) Kenilworth castle was made the 
scene of a splendid and costly festival, the chief promoter of which was Roger Mor- 
timer, earl of March, who was also the principal challenger in the tilt-yard. This 
personage appears to have been one of the most fashionable gallants of the time, and 
his own son Geoffrey named him " The King of Folly." The meeting was called 
the "Round Table," from the banquetings being held, according to a then ancient 
custom, at a round table, that the harmony of the festival might not be disturbed by 
questions about precedence. A hundred knights and an equal number of ladies were 
present. The knights, many of whom came from foreign parts to be present on the 
occasion, amused themselves with tilting and other exercises of chivalry, and the 
ladies with dancing. It is recorded in the accounts of this festival, apparently as an 
extraordinary circumstance, that the ladies were clad in silken mantles. The Lady 
of the Lake, in her address to Queen Elizabeth, which we have already quoted, thus 
alludes to the transactions which we have recorded : — 

•' The Earl Sir Mountford's force gave me no heart, 

Sir Edmund Crouchback's state, the prince's son, 
Could not cause me out of my lake to part ; 

Nor Roger Mortimer's ruff, who first begun 
(As Arthur's heir) to keep the Table Round, 
Could not comfort my heart, or cause me come on ground." 

Henry VIII. incurred considerable expense in repairing and altering the castle. 
Among other works, he caused the banqueting-house, erected by Henry V., to be 
taken down, and part of it to be rebuilt in the base-court of the castle, near the Swan 
tower. 

After this, nothing particular occurs in the history of the castle until the time of 
Queen Elizabeth, who, in the fifth year of her reign, bestowed it upon Robert Lord 
Dudley, her favorite, whom she soon after created baron of Denbigh, and earl of 
Leicester. From him the castle of Kenilworth and the surrounding domain received 
most extensive additions and alterations, which are said to have cost him no less 
than 60,000/. — a prodigious sum to be so applied at that period. His principal 
works consisted in the erection of the grand " Gatehouse" on the north side ; for, 
after having filled up a part of the moat on that side he made the principal entrance 
from the north, instead of the south, as it had been before : he also erected a large 
mass of square rooms, at the southeast angle of the upper court, called " Leicester's 
buildings," and built from the ground two handsome towers at the head of the pool. 
The one called the "Flood Gate," or "Gallery Tower," stood at the end of the tilt- 
yard, and contained a spacious and noble room, whence the ladies might conve- 
niently see the exercises of tilting and other sports. The other was called " Morti- 
mer's Tower," either, as Dugdale thinks, after one that stood there, and in which 
Lord Mortimer lodged at the Round Table festival, or else because Sir John Morti- 
mer was confined there when a prisoner in the reign of Henry VI. Leicester also 
greatly enlarged the chase. Although his works are of the most recent date, they 
have the most ancient and ruined appearance, having been built of a brown friable 
stone, not well calculated to stand the weather. 

Sir Walter Scott has given a short description of the appearance which the castle 
presented in this its most perfect state. This account appears to have been drawn 
from a comparison of the description given by Laneham, with the details in the 
survey made in the reign of James I., and with the actual remains of the castle. 
We may very suitably introduce it here : — 

" The outer wall of this splendid and gigantic structure enclosed seven acres, a 
part of which was occupied by extensive stables, and by a pleasure garden, with its 
trim arbors and parterres, and the rest forming the large base-court or outer yard 
of the noble castle. The lordly structure itself, which rose near the centre of this 
spacious enclosure, was composed of a huge pile of magnificent castellated build- 
ings, apparently of different ages, surrounding an inner court, and bearing in the 
names attached to each portion of the magnificent mass, and in the armorial bear- 
ings which were there blazoned, the emblems of mighty chiefs who had long passed 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



191 



away, and whose history, could ambition have bent ear to it, might have read a les- 
son to the haughty favorite who had acquired and was now augmenting this fait 
domain. A large and massive keep, which formed the citadal of the castle, was of 
uncertain though great antiquity. It bore the name of Caesar, probably from its 
resemblance to that in the tower of London, so called. The external wall of this 
royal castle was, on the south and west sides, adorned and defended by a lake, partly 
artificial, across which Leicester had constructed a stately bridge, that Elizabeth 
might enter the castle by a path hitherto untrodden, instead of the usual entrance to 
the northward, over which he had erected a gatehouse or barbican, which still ex- 
ists, and is equal in extent and superior in architecture to the baronial castle of many 
a northern chief. Beyond the lake lay an extensive chase, full of red deer, fallow 
deer, roes, and every species of game, and abounding with lofty trees, from among 
which the extended front and massive towers of the castle were seen to rise in 
majesty and beauty." 




The Keep. 

There are few edifices now remaining in England that lay claim to so venerable an 
antiquity as Carisbrook castle. This celebrated pile stands about a mile to the south- 
west of Newport, the principal town of the Isle of Wight, and consequently almost 
in the centre of the island. It is erected upon an eminence, from which it overlooks 
the town of Carisbrook, now an insignificant village, but which, before Newport rose 
into importance, enjoyed the dignity of metropolis of the Isle of Wight, under the 



192 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



feudal lords who possessed the island until 1291, when the last descendant of these 
petty sovereigns, Isabella de Fortibus, countess of Devon, and lady of the Isle of Wight, 
surrendered this portion of her vast inheritance to King Edward I. while lying on her 
death-bed. It is thought by some antiquaries that a portion of the present building 
was of Saxon construction, as early as the sixth century. After the Norman inva- 
sion, the castle was greatly enlarged by William Fitzosborne, Earl of Hereford, to 
whom it was given by the Conqueror, and additions have since been repeatedly made 
to it. In the reign of Elizabeth, the buildings were for the first time enclosed by a 
wall faced with stone, and defended by a deep moat, as they now remain. The 
space contained within this enclosure amounts to about twenty acres, and the entire 
circuit of the fortifications is three fourths of a mile. The principal and most 
ancient part of the castle, however, is that which stands on the west side, next to 
the entrance, and forms an almost regular parallelogram, with the corners rounded 
off. Much of this belongs undoubtedly to the Norrnan age, and a small portion of 
it is probably Saxon. The keep is built on the north side of the fortress, upon the 
summit of an artificial mount, of nearly sixty feet in height, the ascent to which is 
by a flight of seventy-two steps. Only the lower apartment now remains, which is 
an irregular polygon, of about sixty feet broad in the widest part. Over this there 
appears to have been originally at least one other story, of which, however, nothing 
now remains. The prospect from the top is of great beauty and extent, compre- 
hending not only the whole of the island, but a considerable part of Southampton 
water, and of some of the adjoining counties. In the centre of the keep is a well, 
of three hundred feet in depth, but which has been for some time covered over as 
useless and dangerous. In ancient times, such an accommodation must have been 
indispensable in this the heart of the fortress, and the last retreat of the garrison, 
when pressed by a besieging enemy. In the earlier ages of English history, Caris- 
brook castle was frequently attacked, especially by the French. In 1377 it is related 
that a band of invaders of that nation having made an assault upon it, fell into an 
ambuscade in a narrow lane in the neighborhood, and were nearly all massacred. 
The scene of slaughter still retains the name of Deadman's lane. 

The most memorable incident in the history of Carisbrook castle, is the detention 
here of King Charles I. the year before his execution. The unfortunate monarch 
fled from Hampton Court on the 5th of November, 1647, attended by two confiden- 
tial servants, but without having determined upon any particular place in which to 
take refuge. They rode all night, and finding themselves at daybreak in the New 
Forest in Hampshire, it was resolved to repair to Titchfield, a seat of the earl of 
Southampton, in the neighborhood of which they were. This, however, was not a 
place in which his majesty could remain in security ; and after some deliberation, it 
was deemed best to send a message to Colonel Hammond, the governor of the Isle 
of Wight, intimating the king's desire to avail himself of his protection. Charles 
thought that he might expect to find a friend in the colonel, who was a nephew of 
his chaplain, Dr. Henry Hammond ; but he was, in fact, a devoted partisan of Crom- 
well. At first, on receiving the king into Carisbrook castle, he treated him as a guest 
rather than as a prisoner — permitting him to ride wherever he chose, and to receive 
all who desired to see him. It was not till after some time that his movements were 
subjected to any restriction. Hammond then informed him that orders had been 
sent down for the instant dismissal of all his attendants ; and they were accordingly 
compelled to take their leave the day following. As soon as they were gone, it was 
further intimated to the unhappy king that he must for the future consider himself as 
a prisoner within the walls of the castle. He was still, however, allowed as much 
freedom as was compatible with this species of confinement — being permitted to 
walk on the ramparts, and to amuse himself in a bowling-green, which Hammond 
caused to be formed for that purpose in a part of the castle-yard. He usually indulged 
himself in the former exercise in the morning, and in the latter in the afternoon. 
Much of his leisure was also occupied in reading ; his favorite books being the Bible, 
the works of Hooker, Bishop Andrews, and Dr.- Hammond, Herbert's poems, the 
Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, in the original, and Fairfax's translation of that poem, 
Ariosto, and Spenser's Fairy Queen. Many persons, it would appear, also still con- 
trived to gain admission to his presence, under the pretext of desiring to be touched 
for the king's evil. The condition in which he was kept, however, was now undis- 
guisedly that of a prisoner; and histhoughts, as well as those of his friends, were 
naturally directed to the means by which he might effect his escape. The several 






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193 



*ttempts which he made for this purpose may be found detailed in the "Threnodia 
Carolina" of Sir Thomas Herbert, and still more minutely in Sir Richard Worsley's 
History of the Isle of Wight, where many particulars are published for the first time, 
from manuscript documents. The first attempt was made on the 29th of December, 
and failed through the mismanagement of its conductor, Captain Burley, the captain 
of Yarmouth castle, who was besides so unfortunate as to be himself apprehended 
and executed for his share in the enterprise. To Charles the only result was 
increased severity of treatment, and greater watchfulness on the part of his jailors. 
Some time after, at the suggestion of a person of the name of Firebrace, who had 
contrived to find access to him by bribing the sentinels, he was induced to endeavor 
to escape from his window during the night; but after getting his head through the 
bars, he could not force through the rest of his body. Aquafortis and files were then 
conveyed to him ; but by this this time the governor had obtained some intimation 
of his former attempt ; and when, after having destroyed one of the bars, the king 
was about to pass through the opening, he observed a number of people on the 
watch below, and instantly retired to bed. It is said that a Major Rolfe, who hap- 
pened at the time to have charge of the castle, declared he was ready to have shot 
his majesty should he have actually commenced making his descent. After these 
repeated failures in the effort to obtain his liberty, Charles so completely abandoned 
himself to despair as even to neglect his person, allowing both his hair and his beard 
to remain undipped and uncombed, till his appearance became at last savage and 
desolate in the extreme. In this state he remained till the 18th of September, 1648, 
when he was permitted to remove to Newpor^, to confer with commissioners ap- 
pointed for that purpose by the parliament, on giving his promise that he would not 
make use of the opportunity to attempt his escape. On the 29th of November he 
was seized here by a party of soldiers, and conveyed to Hurst castle, on the coast of 
Hampshire, which he left only to undergo his trial and execution aboul six weeks 
after. The apartments in which he was confined at Carisbrook castle are now in 
ruins, but a window is still pointed out as that by which he made the several attempts 
that have just been related to regain his liberty. This part of the castle is on the 
left hand upon entering the first court from the gate. A short distance further on, 
and on the same side, are the governor's apartments, almost the only portion of the 
interior of the castle which is now in a state of repair. 




Cmriabrook Castle ; showing the window from which Charles I. attempted to escape. 

13 



194 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

Beaumaris castle was built by Edward I., about the year 1295, in pursuance of 
that policy which led him to secure his conquests by every precaution which he 
might think available. He had subdued the Welsh, after an arduous struggle ; the 
last descendant of the ancient British princes had fallen in battle ; and Edward aimed 
at keeping down for ever the insurrectionary spirit which might be expected to man- 
ifest itself whenever there was opportunity. The sovereignty of Anglesey, remarks 
Sir Richard Colt Hoare, in his edition of Giraldus Cambrensis, had been sturdily con- 
tested for above four centuries ; it was the chosen seat of the Druids ; it was the asy- 
lum to which the Britons fled for succor from the victorious Romans; it had been 
the residence of the British princes, and continued to the last to be their strong-hold. 
The circumstances which immediately preceded the war in whicn tne Welsh were 
finally subdued, are in substance as follows: Lhewelyn, the last and one of the bra- 
vest of the sovereign princes of Wales, was obliged, in the year 1277, to sue for 
peace from Edward I. The terms on which it was granted were humiliating: 
besides the payment of large sums of money, the prince was required to come to 
London every Christmas to do homage to the king for his lands. The following 
story is told by Carte the historian, and it is quoted by Sir Richard Colt Hoare : — 

" The barons of Snowdon, with other noblemen of the most considerable families 
in Wales, had attended Lhewelyn to London, when he came thither at Christmas, 
A. D. 1277, to do homage to King Edward ; and bringing, according to their usual 
custom, larcre retinues with them, were quartered in Islington and the neighboring 
villages. These places did not afford milk enough for such numerous trains ; they 
liked neither wine nor the ale of London ; and though plentifully entertained, were 
much displeased at a new manner of living which did not suit their taste, nor per- 
haps their constitutions. They were still more offended at the crowds of people that 
flocked about them when they stirred abroad, staring at them as if they had been 
monsters, and laughing at their uncouth garb and appearance. They were so 
enraged on this occasion, that they engaged privately in an association to rebel on 
the first opportunity, and resolved to die in their own country rather than ever 
come again to London as subjects, to be held in such derision; and when they 
returned home, they communicated their resentments to their compatriots, who made 
it the common cause of the country." 

In the war which ensued, which was a severely-contested struggle, Edward ad- 
vanced into Wales by land, and sent the fleet of the Cinque Ports to Anglesey. 
When the brother of Lhewelyn learned that they had taken that place, he ex- 
claimed, "Lhewelyn has lost the finest feather in his tail." The Welsh king was 
shortly afterward slain, and when the body was discovered, Edward, says Turner, 
" sent the head up to London, adorned in derision with a silver crown, that it might 
be exhibited to the populace in Cheapside, and fixed upon the Tower." Edward's 
military talents and vigor of mind fitted him for his turbulent age ; his policy was in 
many respects in advance of it, but he retained much of its savage fierceness. The 
brother of Lhewelyn attempting to renew the war, was defeated and taken. He 
was drawn on a hurdle, hanged, and his amputated head sent to London. In the 
Chronicles of Hollinshed, under the year 1295, there is the following account: — 

" The earl of Warwick, hearing that a great number of Welshmen were assem- 
bled together, and lodged in a valley betwixt two woods, he chose out a number of 
horsemen, with certain crossbows and archers, and coming upon the Welshmen in 
the night, compassed them round about, the which, pitching the ends of their spears 
in the ground, and turning the points against their enemies, stood at defensive as to 
keep off the horsemen. But the earl having placed his battle so, that ever betwixt 
two horsemen there stood a crossbow, a great part of the Welshmen which stood at 
defence in manner aforesaid with their spears, were overthrown, and broken with 
the shot of the guarels, and then the earl charged the residue with a troop of horse- 
men, and bare them down with such slaughter, as they had not sustained the like 
loss of people (as was thought) at anyone time before. In the meantime, King 
Edward, to restrain the rebellious attempts of those Welshmen, caused the woods 
of Wales to be cut down, wherein before the Welshmen were accustomed to hide 
themselves in time of danger. He also repaired the castles and holds in that coun- 
try, and builded some new, as the city and castle of Beaumaris, with other ; so that 
the Welshmen, constrained through hunger and famine, were enforced within a 
while to the king's peace." 

The erection of the castle of Beaumaris, though consistant with Edward's policy, 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



19S 




S^^pjV T ^ifigKW' 



193 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

was an unnecessary stretch of prudence. He had already broken down the spirit of 
independence which inspired the native Welsh, without which, as he experienced in 
Scotland, strongholds are but a slight security. The only notable things which the 
garrison appear to have done were to quarrel with the country people, and under 
pretence of keeping them quiet, to oppress them with great severity. In conse- 
quence, the garrison was withdrawn from the time of Henry VII. to the year 1642, 
when, the Earl of Dorset being constable, his deputy furnished it with men and am- 
munition, and it was retained on behalf of Charles I. The first governor of the 
castle was a Gascon knight, Sir William Pickmore, who was appointed by Edward 
T. Twenty-four soldiers were allowed for the guard of the castle and town. 

During the civil war, the inhabitants of Anglesey agreed to some strongly-expressed 
resolutions in behalf of Charles I. But the garrison of Beaumaris did not hold out 
long against the parliamentary forces; they, however, obtained an honorable capit- 
ulation. The castle was surrendered to General Mytton, who appointed Captain 
Evans his deputy. 

The castle Avas erected on lands belonging to several proprietors, whom Edward 
I. removed to distant places, remunerating them by estates, probably sequestrated. 

The castle is the property of the crown. Within the walls a tennis-court, fives- 
court, and bowling-green, have been formed for the amusement of the inhabitants of 
Beaumaris. 

The Dorsetshire coast, at its eastern extremity, is indented by a bay which forms 
the safe and capacious harbor of Poole. The entrance is only about a quarter of a 
mile in width — a neck of land from the isle of Purbeck, called South-Haven point, 
and one from the main land of Dorsetshire, called North-Haven point, projecting into 
the sea within this distance of each other. The isle of Purbeck is, properly speak- 
ing, a peninsula, and forms part of the county of Dorsetshire; it is of an irregular 
form, approaching to an oval, and twelve miles in length ; and being indented by 
several bays, it varies from seven to ten miles in breadth. The surface is agreeably 
diversified, and the quarries, shores, and cliffs, present many objects of interest to 
the «aturalist. 

The isle of Purbeck is divided into nine parishes, and several hamlets and villages. 
Corfe-Castle is the only market-town. It was an ancient borough by prescription, 
and was incorporated by Queen Elizabeth. The government was vested in the 
mayor and eight burgesses, who, after they had passed the mayor's chair, were called 
'barons." When the borough was visited under the commission of Corporation in- 
quiry, the corporate body refused to give any information respecting their charters 
and privileges; and from the nature and constitution of this body, and the situation 
in life of the inhabitants, no particulars on these points couM be obtained by the com- 
missioner. In his report it is stated that " the town of Corfe-Castle is of mean appear- 
ance, and presents no indication of present prosperity, or of progressive improvement. 
The census of 1831 shows that, although there were at that time no uninhabited 
houses in the borough, there were also none that were in a course of building; that 
llie number of inhabited houses was one hundred and fifty-six, the number of families 
occupying them one hundred and ninety-three, and the total population nine hundred 
and sixty." The privilege of returning two members to parliament, while towns 
containing two hundred thousand inhabitants were denied this power of electing 
representatives, being inconsistent and incompatible with the times, Corfe-Castle was 
disfranchised unde the reform act; and being destitute of the proper elements of 
self-government, its corporate character also is no longer recognised. 

The castle is on the norih side of the town, on a steep eminence, and a bridge of 
four high and narrow arches, which is thrown across a deep moat, now dry, connects 
it with the town. Edward die Martyr was stabbed at the gate of this castle by order 
of his mother-in-law, who, with her son, then inhabited it. It has been a place of 
considerable strength, and, from its position on the soutnern coast, was doubtless re- 
garded as of great importance to the protection of the kingdom. The castle was, 
most probably, the precursor of the town. 

Tutbury lies about eleven miles southwest of Derby, and about a mile south of the 
road to Ut'oxeter and the potteries. Tutbury castle forms a prominent object to the left 
in many parts of the road from Derby, but the most picturesque view is obtained of 
it from a point near the river. 'The ruins appear towering over the wood-covereo 
hill, and the church is seen on a bare slope a little distance below, while some tali 
fragments to the right appear like broken pyramids in the elevated horizon. It forms 



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198 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

altogether from this point one of those pictures on which the eye of taste delights 
to dwell. 

The castle, or rather its ruin, is situated to the southwest of the town. Built on 
the summit of a high natural mount, with a deep and rapid river in front, it must 
once have been a grand and imposing object. The castle yard now forms the home- 
stead of a farm, and part of the buildings on the southern side, with the addition of 
a semi-octagonal tower-like entrance, is fitted up as the residence of the farmer ; all 
the other parts are but fragments of walls. The engraving represents the interior 
of the castle-yard. 

It is difficult to determine when Tutbury castle was first erected. From its form- 
ing one of the chain of forts on the Mercian frontier, it was probably in existence 
during the heptarchy, and is conjectured to have been the palace of Offa, of Kenulph, 
and of Ethelred ; the last of whom came to the throne in 674, and, immediately or» 
his accession, "granted to his niece, the pious Werburga, the neighboring village of 
Hanbury, where she erected a nunnery, in which she was afterward buried." "After 
a peaceful interval of two hundred years from the accession of Ethelred," says Sir 
Oswald Mosley, " the town and castle of Tutbury, together with the monastery at 
Hanbury, were overwhelmed in one common destruction by that formidable irruption 
of the Danes, who drove the last of the Mercian sovereigns from his throne." 

" From this fated period," Sir Oswald continues, " the castle remained a ruin until 
after the Norman conquest, and the ferocious Danes continued to exercise their tyran- 
nical sway in its vicinity for more than forty years, when the Saxons, assisted by the 
brave Ethelfleda, daughter of Alfred the Great, succeeded in expelling them from 
this part of the kingdom. Their triumph, however, was but transitory : the Danes 
returned, and a second time became masters of the country, until at length (A. D. 1012) 
the Saxon inhabitants, goaded by oppression, and driven to despair, eagerly embraced 
King Ethelred's plan of extirpating the whole race by one general massacre, and 
the opening scene of this bloody tragedy is actually fixed by an ancient historian at 
Houndhill, about five miles distant from Tutbury." 

In Domesday we find the castle of Tutbury, with one hundred and forty-six lord- 
ships in the surrounding counties, besides many others in various parts of the king- 
dom, was held by Henry de Ferrers, a particular favorite of William I. He raised 
the castle from its ruins, built it upon a more capacious and splendid plan, and made 
it for a time his principal residence ; he rebuilt the citadel or keep, " excavated the 
fosse, and enclosed the whole of the present area within the walls ofhis castle, "and 
founded in its immediate vicinity " a priory, which he and his wife Bertha richly en- 
dowed." 

The castle of Tutbury continued to be the residence of the family of Ferrers til! 
the latter end of the reign of Henry III., when, in consequence of the repeated acts 
of rebellion of Robert de Ferrers, earl of Derby, it was nearly destroyed by the king's 
army ; and the lordship or honor, after repeated acts of clemency on the part of the 
king, was finally forfeited, and became by royal grant the property of Edmund Plan- 
tagenet, earl of Lancaster, second son of the king. 

The castle seems not to have met with much reparation from the hands of Earl 
Edmund ; but his successor, Thomas, the second earl of Lancaster, not only repaired 
the ravages it had sustained while in the hands of the earl of Derby, but gave to it a 
grandeur and magnificence which it had not previously possessed. He made it his 
principal residence, and, from the more than princely style in which he lived, became. 
a benefactor to the surrounding country, giving a stimulus to the industry of his ten- 
antry, and finding a mart for all their productions. 

On the accession of Henry of Bolingbroke to the crown, Tutbury, and the other 
parts of the duchy of Lancaster, which had descended to him as duke of Lancaster, 
oecame the property of the kings of England. Its popularity passed away — other 
events fixed Its proprietors in other parts of the kingdom, and few among them ever 
condescended to rest a night in this once-favored castle. Henry VII., indeed, whose 
reign was comparatively peaceful, sometimes brought his court hither to enjoy the 
amusement of hunting in the adjacent forest of Needwood, and of one of his excur- 
sions we find the following anecdote : — 

" One day, during the ardor of the chase, he was separated from his companions, 
and, having in vain sought to join them again through the thick masses of wood with 
which the forest abounded, he determined at length to extricate himself from his dif- 
ficulties by proceeding to the nearest village, and inquiring his way thence to Tut- 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



199 




200 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

bury. It so happened that, for this purpose, he stopped at the house of a poor man 
named Taylor, in the village of Barton-under-Needwood, whose wife had, not long 
before, presented him with three sons at a birth. The father volunteered his services 
to conduct the king (who did not disclose his rank) to the place of his inquiry ; and 
while he was making himself ready for that purpose, the mother introduced the 
three little babes to the stranger at the cottage-door. The king was much pleased 
with the adventure, and, in reward for the poor man's services, undertook to pay for 
the education of the three children, if they should live long enough to be put to 
school. Taylor expressed his grateful thanks, and the king did not forget his prom- 
ise. When the three children attained man's estate, they had made such good use 
of the learning thus afforded them, that they all became doctors in divinity, and ob- 
tained good preferment. John Taylor, the eldest of them, became archdeacon of 
Derby, rector of Sutton Coldfield, and clerk of the parliament that sat in the seventh 
year of the reign of Henry VIII. He was made master of the rolls in 1 528, and died 
in 1534 ; but not before he had proved his gratitude to the Almighty Disposer of 
events for the singular mercies extended to himself and his brothers by erecting the 
present church of Barton, near the site of the cottage in which they first saw light." 

Tutbury castle seems not to have been noticed during subsequent reigns ; in that 
of Elizabeth, it acquired notoriety as being, at two different periods, the prison of the 
fair, but unfortunate queen of Scotland. 

Sir Ralph Sadler gives a very accurate description of the state of Tutbury castle 
during the last imprisonment of the unfortunate Mary: " The whole area, contain- 
ing about three acres, was encompassed on all sides but one with a strong and lofty 
embattled wall and deep fosse, as the present ruins plainly show. The principal 
entrance was by a bridge under the great gateway to the north ; at a small distance 
to the left of this gateway stood a building containing Mr. Dorell's (the superintend- 
ant) office and bedchamber, and four other rooms. Along this northeast wall, about 
one hundred and sixty feet from the entrance, was a lofty tower embattled, contain- 
ing four rooms, viz., a storehouse at the bottom, above Curie's apartment, over which 
was the doctor's, and at the top the chief cook's. This tower was then much shaken 
and cleft, but it still forms a prominent feature among the ruins. At a little distance 
from this began the principal suite of the queen's apartments, which did not overlook 
the walls, but formed a long line of low buildings, on the eastern side of the area ; 
they contained the queen's dining-chamber and closets adjoining, her bedchamber, 
cabinet, place for wood and coals, and her gentlewomen's apartments." The site 
of the present farmer's house were storerooms, kitchen, scullery, &c. ; and where the 
modern-erected round tower now stands upon the mount was the keep, called Julius's 
tower, even at that time in a state of ruin. The dungeons or vaults under the greater 
part of the building were used as storerooms for provisions and goods. 

In August, 1036, Tutbury was visited by King Charles I., and in 1634 he is stated 
to have spent a fortnight here. This was before the commencement of his troubles ; 
but when he had decided on an appeal to the sword, he sent a mandate to the high 
sheriff of Staffordshire, commanding him to raise forces, both horse and foot, at the 
expense of the county, and to place them as a garrison in the castle of Tutbury : this 
was in November, 1642. On the 24th of May, 1645, the king himself, accompanied 
by Prince Rupert and a large army, took up his abode at Tutbury, and the troops 
were quartered in the surrounding villages. This was on Whitsunday, and on the 
following Tuesday the king marched off for Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Leicester. The 
battle of Naseby, which decided the affairs of the king, took place on the 14th of 
June; and on the 12 th of August, 1645, the unfortunate monarch, attended by about 
one hundred foot soldiers, visited Tutbury for the last time. 

The castle of Tutbury was one of the last places within the county of Stafford that 
held out for the king; the natural strength of its situation, and the well-known 
bravery of its garrison, rendered it almost impregnable. Repeated attempts had 
been made by the parliament forces to take it. 

It was surrendered to Sir William Brereton on the 20th of April, 1646, on terms 
more honorable than are generally granted. An order of parliament for the total 
demolition of the castle soon followed, and this majestic pile was once more reduced 
to ruin. 

Upnor castle is situated on the western bank of the river Medway, a little below 
Chatham, on the shore opposite to it. According to Kilbourne, the castle was built 
by Queen Elizabeth, in the third year of her reign, for the defence of the river; " but 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



201 




202 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

as a fort," says Grose, " this place has never been of much consequence, especially 
as it was very injudiciously placed ; and it has therefore very properly been converted 
to a powder magazine." It derives its chief interest, perhaps, from the fact that it 
is one of the last, if not the last, places of defence in England built on the principle 
of the ancient castles. 

It is built chiefly of stone. Its external figure is a parallelogram, much longer 
than broad, the largest side facing the water. It has two towers at the extremities, 
the southernmost of which is appropriated to the use of the governor, but, on account 
of its unfitness for his reception, he never resides there : the entrance is in the centre 
of the west side. On the east side, next the river, are the remains of some stone 
walls, which seem to have formed a salient angle, like a modern ravelin. Here, 
probably, was a platform and battery, but the spot is now covered by high palisades, 
with a crane for shipping powder. Hasted said, more than forty years since, that 
there had not for many years been a gun mounted on the castle for service, nor in- 
deed a platform to receive one. In the military establishment for 1659, the garrison 
consisted of the governor, a gunner, a servant, two corporals, one drummer, and thirty 
soldiers. 

The only period at which this castle proved of any utility was in the reign of 
Charles II., in June, 1677, when the Dutch, under the famous Admiral De Ruyter, 
suddenly appeared at the mouth of the Thames, during a protacted negotiation, and 
detached his vice-admiral, Van Ghent, with seventeen of his lighter ships and eight 
fireships, to sail up the Medway. Van Ghent took the fort of Sheerness with little 
difficulty, and, after destroying the stores, made dispositions to proceed up the river 
In the meantime Monk, duke of Albemarle, made every effort that the suddenness 
of the surprise would admit to render the attempt abortive. He sunk. several ships 
in the channel of the river, and drew a chain across, behind which he placed the 
Unity, the Matthias, and the Charles the Fifth — three large men-of-war that had just 
been taken from the Dutch, who were then advancing very fast, and, having the ad- 
vantage of wind and tide, passed through the sunken ships and broke the chain. 
The« three ships that guarded it were instantly in one tremendous blaze ; and Van 
Ghent continued to advance until, with six men-of-war and five fire-ships, he came 
opposite Upnor castle ; but he there met so warm a reception from Major Scott, the 
commandant of the castle, and Sir Edward Spragfge, who directed the battery on the 
opposite shore, that he thought it best to draw off, his ships having received consid- 
erable damage. On their return, however, they burnt the Royal Oak, the Great 
James, and the Loyal London. The former was commanded by the brave Captain 
Douglass, who, in the confusion of the day, had received no directions to retire, and 
who perished with his ship. His last words were: "It never shall be said that a 
Douglass quitted his post without orders." 

The ruin of Scarborough castle, on the coast of Yorkshire, is one of the most 
remarkable objects that stand out from the somewhat tame prospect presented by 
much of the northern part of England, as seen from the German ocean. It crowns 
a precipitous rock, whose eastern termination, which advances into the sea, rises 
about three hundred feet above the waters. The principal part of the ancient castle 
now remaining stands at a considerable distance bark from this bold and inaccessible 
front, but on ground which is very nearly as elevated. It is a huge, square tower, 
still nearly one hundred feet high, but the walls of which show, by their ragged 
summits and by other indications, that its original height must have been consider- 
ably greater. Each side is between fifty and sixty feet in length : but the walls 
being about twelve feet thick, the space in the interior is only thirty feet square. 
This enclosed area is now open to the sky ; but marks are still discernible of vault- 
ings which had formerly divided the ascent into three stories, each of which must 
have been about thirty feet from the floor to the ceiling. An immense fireplace still 
remains on the ground floor ; but beneath that there is another apartment, hollowed 
out under the earth, which is now filled with stones and rubbish. The walls on the 
outside are faced with hewn stones of a square shape, and are pierced in various 
places with windows, six feet deep and three broad, formed by semicircular arches 
resting on strong pillars. This tower was probably the keep of the ancient castle, 
and as usual has been preserved from destruction by its extraordinary solidity and 
strength, long after time has swept away nearly all the surrounding parts of the 
building. It stands immediately within the great gate of entrance to the fortress, 
which is at the western extremity of the enclosure, and of which this tower was no 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES, 



203 




204 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

doubt the main defence. The access to the promontory from this side is by a steeo 

T S hTwL a ] nd * 1 ga ', e ' S gUard6d by u a d / e P f ° SSe ° r ditCn > Wlth a drawbridge overlE 
1 he whole enclosed space comprehends about nineteen acres ; and the fosse before 
the gate is continued along the entire length of the wall leading southward Tom that 
point to he sea. As the old feudal stronghold looks down upon the sea on the one 
hand, it has the toAyn of Scarborough stretched below it and around it on the other 

Scarborough castle was bu.lt about the year 1136, by William, earl of Albemarle 
and Holderness, one of the most powerful of the Norman nobility then settled in 
England. His grandfather, Odo of Campania, had come over with the Conqueror 
1™ AT "r™ m T e f h u ° Wn dau § hters - Adeliza, in marriage. William, su £ 
named LeGros, or the fat, being possessed of extensive estates & in Yorkshire was 
permitted by King Stephen to build this fortress as a residence and defence ^him- 
self against the turbulent and only half-subdued inhabitants of the district. When 
Henry II. came to the throne, with the view of curbing the power of his fierce no- 
bil.ty he ordered the demolition of most of those places of strength, which in he 
preceding reigns, had been erected in all parts of the kingdom ; but, ou Sing he 
castle of Scarborough, he was struck with the advantages of its position whch 
made it quite impregnable in those times; and instead of destroying it he oriv 
seized upon it and declared it the property of the crown. It has ever since remained 
one of the royal castles; and it is still occupied by a small garrison coi sisdng usu- 
ally of a kv mvaluls, who are accommodated in barracks of modern erection. 

1 he castle, after it was taken possession of by Henry II., is stated to have been 

tir tebSif if "weT 11 ^ that ^ a , nd T °' d chronicler Tsserts that h en- 
rely rebuilt it. We may suppose from this, that the additions which he made to 
it were very extensive Its subsequent history has been elaborately investigated by 
Mr. I. Hmderwell, in his " History of Scarborough " 

nfTh h p most f mem 1 orable even ! in its histor y is thedege it sustained in the civil wars 
of the seventeenth century, when it was held for the king by Sir Hu-h Che \\m\ev 
The parliamentary forces sat down before it in the latter part of the year 1643 but 

til TSeTZrn Ts Zt* V^ ^ ° f Feta 5V7' 1644 ' Under the command of Si 
John Meldrum, a Scotch military ad venturer, of high renown for courage and ability 
By this attack the besiegers obtained possession of the town ; but the castle res sted 
their boldest efforts They afterward took up their principal station i,L parish 
church, which is only a few hundred yards from the castle gate ; and agains this o d 

* n ,hf ' p^?° rd ! ng f ly ' r 16 Canno ? ade °f the g^rison was directed with such effect, 

hat the east end of it, forming the choir, was in a short time battered down. A few 

years ago it still remained a heap of ruins. On the 17th of May, 1645 another 

at temp was made to storm the fortress, which was again repelled with grea slauT 

on tt 3d of wtfl Me,dm ™ n h T df ^ rece,vcd a W0Ulld > " f ™ hich £ dted 
on he 3d of June following. By this time, however, both the strength and resources 

of the garrison were nearly exhausted; and compelled at length! by disease and 

famine, which had reduced his men to a few miserable invalids, the glenn*L the 

22d of June, surrendered the place on honorable conditions to Sir Matthew Bovnton 

who had been appointed Meldrum 's successor -tsoynton 

A Jew years after this, Scarborough castle stood another siege ; its governor, Sir 
Matthew Boynton the successor, and perhaps the son, of the person of Te same 
name to whom Cholmley had surrendered, having, in 1648, declared for he kinS 
He did not, however, stand out so long as Cholmley had done : and the place fel 
mto the hands of the parliamentary forces, on the 19th of December in the same 
annals. ' S ° CCaS ' 011 ° n Which S ^orough castle figures in military 

Belvoir castle is built on a high and insulated mount in Framland Hundred in the 
northeastern extremity of Leicestershire, on the very confines of Lincolnshire Ab 
hough the present bu.ld.ng is not of a more ancient date than the time of Charles 
II. the commanding nature of its situation, surrounded as it is by a comparatively 
flat extent of country renders it a remarkably picturesque object! In v K the 
remains of an old building we believe we see before us a record of the many fnter- 
esttng events which have taken place within its walls or in its immediate vYcinTy- 
and although we may not be aware of the particulars of its history, our fancy will 
Ser e o U u? bXT ary SCCneS l ° the truthfulQess and reality of which we willingly 

The hill on which the castle of Belvoir stands is supposed to have been thrown 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



20* 







206 INSCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




up by the Romans when in possession of this island ; though it is probable that there 
was a mount here before that time, and that they only assisted nature in rendering 
it steeper, loftier, and of a more imposing appearance. 

It is very steep in parts, and from the summit affords a view of considerable ex- 
tent and beauty. Peck, the antiquarian, amused himself by making out a list of the 
different towns and villages which may be seen from the castle, and he enumerates 
no less than one hundred and seventy-four places within the circle bounded by the 
horizon ; " but," says Nichols, in his " History of Leicestershire," in which work 
this list is printed, " the grand prospect of all is that which the duke of Rutland 
sees hence, viz v two-and-twenty manors of his own paternal inheritance." 

The old castle, which existed on the site of the present mansion until the middle 
of the seventeenth century, was of considerable antiquity. It was founded in the 
eleventh century by Robert de Todeni, a noble Norman who accompanied William 
the Conqueror to England, and held the office of standard-bearer to the king. It has 
been said that there was before this time a fortified building erected on the spot by 
the Romans ; but although several Roman remains have been discovered in the 
vicinity, and it is possible that Belvoir may have been one of the stations of the Ro- 
mans, it is improbable that any extensive building was erected by them. 

Robert de Todeni died in 1088, and the estate has continued in his family ever 
since, the present duke of Rutland being lineally descended from him. The castle 
appears to have afforded a very quiet' home to its proprietors until th 
VI., when it suffered greatly from the forces of Edward IV., as Lei 
his Itinerary. " The Lord Ros took King Henry the sixth's parte agay 
ward ; whereupon the Lord Ros's landes stood as confiscate, King Edward prevail- 
inge ; and Bellevoir castle was given in keeping to the Lord Hastings ; the which 
coming thither upon a tyme to peruse the grounde, and to lye in the castle, was 
sodainely repelled by Mr. Harrington, a man of poure thereaboute, and friend to the 
Lord Ros ; whereupon the Lord Hastings came thither another tyme with a strong 
poure, and upon a raging wylle spoiled the castle, defacing the roofes, and taking 
the leades of them, wherewith they were all covered. Then felle all the castell to 
ruin ; and the timber of the roofes, onkivorid, rotted away ; and the soile between the 
walls at last grew full of elders, and no habitation was there till that of late days the 
eyrie of Rutlande hath made it fairer than ever it was." 

The rebuilding and improvement of the castle was completed in 1555, by the son 
of this earl of Rutland, Henry, afterward the second earl. Leland, about that time, 
thus notices it : " It is a strange sight to se by how many steppes of stone the way 
goeth up from the village to the castel. In the castel be two faire gates ; and the 
dungeon is a faire round tower now turned to pleasure, as a place to walk in, and 
to se all the country about, and raylid about the round [wall], and a garden [plotj 
in tbe middle. There is also a welle of a grete depth in the castelle, and the spring 
thereof is very good." This well still exists, and has been found to be one hundred 
and thirteen feet deep. 

In the year 1603, in the time of Roger, the fifth earl of Rutland, Belvoir became 
the scene of much festivity on the occasion of the visit of James I. in his progress 
from Edinburgh to London. 

In 1645, during the unhappy conflict between the king and parliament, the castle 
was used as a depot for the royal forces, and in August of that year the king for sev- 
eral days remained there ; but it appears that the castle was betrayed into the hands 
of Charles by the governor of the castle, a servant of the earl's, who was himself a 
parliamentarian. The utility of the castle, as affording shelter to parties of the 
royal forces, who by sudden and unexpected sallies rendered themselves extreme! 
obnoxious to the opposing troops posted in the neighborhood, being perceived by th 
parliamentarian general, it was determined forthwith to endeavor to obtain it fo: 
their own use. Accordingly, in the winter of 1645-'46 it was subjected to a siegi 
which lasted four months, at the expiration of which time it was forced to surren 
der, and General Poyntz took possession of the ruined walls on the 3d of Febr 
ary, 1646. 

In 1649, when the county was restored to a comparatively quiet state, the parlia- 
ment with the consent of the earl of Rutland, ordered the castle to be demolished, 
adjudging (he earl 1,500J. as a compensation. After its demolition the earl resided 
principally at Haddon, in Derbyshire; but after the restoration he returned to Bel- 
voir, in the enjoyment of the king's favpr, and erected the present mansion, which, 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 207 

with the surrounding gardens, plantations, and ornamental grounds, was completed 
in 1668. 

After this time we have little to record of the history of this mansion, until we ar- 
rive at the year 1695, when a marriage of a member of the Rutland family was cel- 
ebrated here with even more cordial and extravagant festivity than the annals of that 
time of old-fashioned gayety generally exhibit. 

This was the marriage of Lord Roos, afterward the second duke of Rutland, to 
Katherine, the second daughter of William Lord Russell, which took place on the 
17th of August, 1693, and which Lady Russell in one of her letters characterizes as 
one of the " best matches in England" for her daughter. 

The following description, by Sir James Forbes, of the ceremonies attending this 
event, will be found among the "Russell Letters": — 

" I could not miss this opportunity of giving your ladyship some account of Lord 
Roos and Lady Roos's journey, and their reception at Belvoir, which looked more 
like the progress of a king and queen through their country than that of a bride and 
bridegroom going home to their father's house. At their first entry into # Leicester- 
shire they were received by the high-sheriff, at the head of all the gentlemen of the 
country, who all paid their respects and complimented the lady-bride at Harborough. 

" She was attended next day to this place by the same gentlemen, and by thou- 
sands of other people who came from all parts of the country to see her, and to wish 
them both joy, even with huzzas and acclamations. As they drew near to Beivoir 
our train increased, with some coaches, and with fresh troops of aldermen and cor- 
porations, beside a great many clergymen, who presented the bride and bridegroom 
(for so they are still called ) with verses upon their happy marriage. I can not bet- 
ter represent their first arrival at Belvoir than by the Woburn song that Lord Bed- 
ford liked so well ; for at the gate were four-and-twenty fiddlers all in a row, four- 
and-twenty trumpeters with their tantara-rara's, four-and-twenty ladies, and as many 
parsons ; and in great order they went in procession to the great apartment, where 
the usual ceremony of saluting and wishing of joy passed, but still not without some- 
thing represented in the song, as very much tittle-tattle and fiddle-faddle. After 
this the time passed away till supper in visiting all the apartments of the house, 
and in seeing the preparations for the sack-posset, which was the most extraordinary 
thing I did ever see, and much greater than it was represented to be. After supper, 
which was exceedingly magnificent, the company went in procession to the great 
hall, the bride and bridegroom first, and all the rest in order, two and two: then it 
was the scene opened, and the great cistern appeared, and the healths began, first in 
spoons, sometime after in silver cups ; and though the healths were many, and great 
variety of names given to them, it was observed, after one hour's hot service, the 
posset had not sunk above one inch ; which made my Lady Rutland call in all the 
family, and then upon their knees the bride and bridegroom's healths, wiih prosper- 
ity and happiness, were drunk in tankards brim-full of sack-posset. This lasted till 
twelve o'clock." 

The general features of the mansion at Belvoir may be gathered from our engra 
ving. The east front of the building is eighty-four yards long, and the whole pile 
of buildings has a fine old castellated appearance. 

The castle called " Prudhoe," is situated in the county of Northumberland, on the 
south side of the river Tyne, about eight miles from Newcastle ; its name is descrip- 
tive of its situation on a commanding or proud eminence. 

We have no distinct information concerning the origin of this castle, the earliest 
accounts in which it is mentioned describing it as already existing. Grose, however, 
fixes the date of its foundation somewhere about the year 627, and considers that it 
was rebuilt about the year 1060. Subsequently to the Conquest, the castle fell into 
the possession of the family of the Umfranviiles, who came into the country with 
the Conqueror. The last member of the family to which the castle belongs, who 
seems to have occupied it as a residence, was Henry Percy, ifre brother of Thomas, 
earl of Northumberland, who is described as having been its inmate in the year 1557. 
We shall now draw from Hutchinson a description of the ruins as they appeared at 
a comparatively recent period, afterward mentioning the alterations which have 
since taken place. 

The castle of Prudhoe stands on the summit of a steep promontory, which com- 
municates with the adjoining grounds by a narrow neck and pass toward the south. 
The ground on which the castle stands is guarded by an outward wall toward the 



20S 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 209 

Tyne, built on the brink of the cliffs, which in this part are not less than sixty feet 
in perpendicular height above the plain which intervenes between the castle and the 
river ; this wall is at intervals defended by square bastions. The entrance to the 
castle is from the south ; and on approaching, the structure when viewed from the 
heights still makes a very noble and formidable appearance. The narrow neck of 
land leading to the entrance was formerly cut through by a deep ditch, over which a 
drawbridge gave access to the outward gate. This gate was originally defended by 
an outwork and a tower, as appears by their ruins. The superstructure of the inner 
gate is a lofty embattled square tower, about sixty feet high, now so mantled with 
ivy that the windows, loopholes, and apertures are almost wholly concealed. To 
the right, the outward wall extended to some distance, terminated by a turret, the 
wall of which is embattled, and there the landscape is closed by a fine grove of 
stately trees. . The outer wall to the left, from the inner gateway, extends to a con- 
siderable distance without any turret or bastion, over which several interior build- 
ings, and among them the remains of a chapel, are discovered in all the confusion 
of ruin. Above all this rises'a square tower, the ancient keep of the fortress, which 
overlooks the castle with considerable grandeur. It is twenty-five yards high, and 
eighteen in breadth, without ornaments or windows, but having a square explora- 
tory tower at the southwest corner. The wall, still extending to the left, is, at its 
angle, defended by a square bastion with open loopholes ; it then turns northward, 
and is terminated by a broken circular tower, situated on the brink of the cliff. 

The first gate admits to a covered way, about thirty paces in length, which leads 
to the inner gate, from which a sallyport opens on each side. The second gateway 
is formed by a circular arch, above which rises a high tower, the windows in which 
show that it consisted of three tiers of apartments. The roof of the gateway is 
arched in semicircles, with an aperture in the centre, whence those in the upper 
chamber might annoy an enemy who had forced the gate. 

From the inner gate the visiter enters an open area, which is now so blocked up 
with a farmyard and tenement, that it is not easy to obtain an idea of its original 
magnitude. It appears, however, that an open area had surrounded the great tower, 
which does not show any means of communication with the outworks, but seems to 
have stood apart, on an eminence in the centre. 

The outward wall was defended on the angle to the southwest by a large square 
bastion, with loopholes; and to the northwest by a circular tower containing several 
tiers of low chambers, singular in their form and height ; the inhabitants could not 
stand erect in them at the time of defence. Toward the river, and northward, the 
wall is guarded by several small, square bastions ; and toward the southeast, a small 
mount, placed within the walls, overlooks the ditch which guards the southern side, 
and terminates at the brink of the cliffs. The large tower is in ruins, onlv the 
southern wall now standing ; and not one bastion remains entire. A passage in the 
centre wall runs from one bastion to another. In several places steps ascend from 
the area to the top of the wall, which is broad enough to have allowed the armed 
men of the garrison to pass each other on it, protected by a parapet. 

This is the substance of the description given by Hutchinson. Since his day, time 
has made some alterations in the condition and appearance of the ruin. Part of the 
main tower has fallen down ; but the duke of Northumberland, being anxious to 
preserve, as long as possible, the remains of this very old baronial castle, caused the 
further progress of decay to be arrested by the repair of those parts which were in 
the most dilapidated condition. His intentions in this respect appear to have been 
judiciously and carefully executed. 

At the southeasiern corner of England, upon the summit of a chalk cliff from three 
hundred and fifty to four hundred feet in height, and at the distance of about twenty- 
one miles from the opposite coast of France, stands Dover castle. The town of 
Dover has been built to the west of, and immediately below it. The antiquity of 
the castle very far exceeds that of the town, and all that the latter contains worthy 
of remark is of modern date. It is, however, generally known as the key to the con- 
tinent, and as possessing a very complete artificial harbor. The coasts of Sussex 
and Kent, as well as the opposite coast of France, are without natural harbors; but, 
as a proof how far art has supplied this want, the harbors of Dover and Ramsgate, 
among others, may be referred to with just pride. 

The fortifications of the castle are of different epochs, Roman, Saxon, Norman, 
and of later date. The watchtower (an octagonal building), the parapet, the peculiar 

14 



210 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

form of the ditch, all exhibit the hand of the Roman architect ; and there is no doubt 
that the Romans had here one of their stationary posts, or walled encampments. 
The foundations of the watchtower are laid in a bed of clay, which was a usual prac- 
tice with the Roman masons ; and it is built with a stalactical composition, instead 
of stone, intermixed with courses of Roman tiles. The watchtower and the ancient 
church are the only remaining buildings within the Roman fortress. What the pre- 
cise origin of this church was is not known, but it was consecrated to Christian wor- 
ship by St. Augustine, when he was in England in the sixth century. 

The Saxons extended the groundwork of the Roman fortress, and erected a fortress 
differing materially from that of the Romans, as it consisted merely of perpendicular 
sides without parapets, surrounded by deep ditches. In the centre of the old Saxon 
works is the keep, which is, however, of Norman origin, the foundation having been 
laid in 1153. Tt is a massy square edifice, the side on the southwest being one hun- 
dred and three feet ; that on the northwest one hundred and eight feet ; and the other 
two one hundred and twenty-three feet each. The north turret of the keep is ninety- 
five feet above the ground, which is three hundred and seventy-three feet above the 
level of the sea. The view from it in a clear day comprises the North Foreland, 
Ramsgate pier, the isle of Thanet, the valley of Dover, and the towns of Calais and 
Boulogne, with the intermediate French coast. The rest of the fortifications are, for 
the most part, of Norman origin, but present the altered and improved appearance 
which has been given them by a succession of repairs for a course of centuries. 

During the French revolution, it was considered important to secure and defend 
Dover castle as a military station. Fifty thousand pounds were voted for this pur- 
pose, and miners and other laborers were employed to excavate the rock for purposes 
of defence, and to cast up additional mounds and ramparts. Extensive barracks 
were excavated in the solid rock, by which accommodations were provided for a gar- 
rison of three or four thousand men. The subterraneous rooms and passages are 
shown to visiters, upon an order of the military commandant being obtained. There 
is an armory in the keep ; and many ancient curiosities are to be seen here, among 
which is Queen Elizabeth's pocket-pistol, a beautiful piece of brass ordnance, pre- 
sented to Elizabeth by the states of Holland, as a token of respect for the assistance 
she afforded them against Spain. It is twenty-four feet long, and bears a Dutch in- 
scription, of which the following is a translation: — 

" O'er hill and dale I throw my ball ; 
Breaker, my name, of mound and wall." 

In Lyon's History of Dover, in two volumes quarto, or in a smaller work published 
by William Batcheller at Dover, may be found the detailed history of this castle, one 
remarkable event in which is, that, on the 21st of August, 1645, it was surprised and 
wrested from the king's garrison by a merchant of Dover, named Blake, with only 
ten of his townsmen, who kept possession of it for the parliament, and effectually re- 
sisted the king's troops. It is also worth notic ?, that, on the 7th of January, 1785, 
Dr. Jefferies and M. Blanchard embarked in a balloon from the castle heights, and, 
having crossed the channel in safety, descended in the forest of Guisnes, in France. 

The lord warden of the cinque ports is constable of Dover castle, and has the exe- 
cution of the king's writs within the cinque ports — a jurisdiction extending from 
Margate to Seaford, independently of the sheriffs of Kent and Sussex. The castle 
contains a prison used for debtors and smugglers, and the keeper has the feudal desig- 
nation of" bodar," under the lord warden. The courts of chancery, admiralty, &c, 
for the cinque ports, are held by the lord warden in St. James's church, at the foot 
of the castle-hill. The office of lord warden has been usually given to the first lord 
of the treasury, and is now held by the duke of Wellington, in consequence of his 
grace having been such first lord when the office became vacant. 

To the west of Dover, opposite the castle, is the celebrated Shakspere cliff, de- 
scribed in the tragedy of King Lear. It is three hundred and fifty feet high, and 
almost perpendicular. The late Sir Walter Scott, when at Dover some years since, 
on his road to Paris, said to a gentleman who was speaking to him of this cliff: 
"Shakspere was a lowland man, and I am a highland man ; it is, therefore, natural 
that he should make much more of this chalk cliff than I can do, who live among 
the black mountains of Scotland." 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



211 




L 



212 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

Hover castle affords a good example of those residences which arose out of the 
disturbed state of society during the earlier periods of British history after the con- 
quest, which suffered a partial dilapidation during the conflicts of the factions of 
York and Lancaster, and once more rose, in less martial forms, under the govern- 
ments of Elizabeth and James. It was in the reign of Edward III. that William de 
Hevre obtained the king's license to " embattle his manor-house." It consists of " a 
castle," to which a quadrangular house is attached, the whole surrounded by a moat, 
beyond which several out-buildings, now used as barns, were arranged, to meet the 
wants of extra visiters, and the many festivals, religious and secular, of those "good 
old times." The elevation or front of the castle is composed of a central keep, 
pierced by a gate, crowned by strongly projecting machicolations, and flanked by 
two square towers. The face of the keep is decorated with some well-extcuted 
tracery of a much later date than the massive walls on which they repose. The 
gate is of vast strength, and seems to have been the point, of all others, on which the 
architect bestowed the utmost resources of his defensive skill. First, a deep-btowed 
doorway is passed, defended by a strong portcullis and two thick oaken doors, barred, 
bolted, and studded with iron nobs: immediately behind these are two guardrooms, 
in which a dozen men-at-arms might long dispute the passage of a breach. A broad 
avenue of solid masonry succeeds, and leads straight forward to a second portcullis, 
and these again to a third, occupying altogether the whole depth of the castle. Most 
of these works are in a good state of preservation ; in two of the portcullises, the origi- 
nal doors, wickets, knockers, gratings, still remain. Over the external gate, imme- 
diately under the battlements, about a dozen machicolations project boldly forward, 
from which red-hot lead or other missiles might have been discharged on the heads 
of assailants. These gates lead the visiter into a spacious court-yard, formed on 
three sides by the house, which is built in the very early Tudor style, and on the 
fourth by the castle. The court is neatly paved with red bricks fancifully disposed. 
The fronts of the house are stuccoed, but were formerly richly embossed and painted 
with quaint patterns. The entrance to the apartments is usually made by the back- 
front, through what was once the great dining-hall, but which is now used as a 
kitchen. This is a most interesting place, very spacious, being ninety feet by thirty : 
it contains many fine specimens of old tables, safes, presses, &c, part of the original 
" Bullen" furniture. The walls appear formerly to have been covered with arms, 
and decorated with antlers and other memorials of the chase. From this apartment 
one is conducted to the grand staircase, a very tawdry affair, utterly out of character 
with the rest of the building, and furnished with some execrable pictures — one of 
them a portrait, apparently, of Cooke as Richard III., said to represent the cruel 
Henry VIII. himself. Leaving the staircase, several small anterooms are passed, 
panelled throughout with oak, and at length a door is reached, which is the thresh- 
old of Anne Boleyn's bedroom. This is really an interesting apartment, beautifully 
panelled, and contains the original family chairs, tables, muniment-box, and Anne's 
bed, a very heavy affair, dressed with yellow damask hangings. A door in one of 
the corners opens into a strong, dark cell, which was probably a strong cupboard for 
plate and valuables. In this apartment, several anterooms succeed, and the suite 
terminates in a grand gallery occupying the whole length of the building, in which 
the judicial meetings and social gatherings of the ancient family were held. It is 
about one hundred and fifty feet in length by twenty feet in width, with a vaulted 
roof, and panelled throughout with rudely-carved oak. 

The interior of the castle is approached by a well-constructed winding stair in one 
of the towers, which opens into a number of little slit-windowed chambers, from 
which the archers could annoy their assailants. About midway the staircase opens 
into the narrow vestibule of the great stateroom. This is a lofty and nobly-propor- 
tioned hall, of nearly the whole width of the castle, panelled with richly-carved 
mahogany, which, together with the furniture, has recently undergone a most judi- 
cious restoration. The Gothic tracery over the fireplace is extremely beautiful, both 
in design and execution. It consists of two angels, each bearing two shields, show- 
ing the arms and alliances of — 1. The Carey and Boleyn families ; 2. Carey and 
Waldo ; 3. Boleyn and Howard ; 4. Henry VIII. and Boleyn. Upon the walls a 
number of ancient and modern family portraits are displayed, of little interest, save 
one of Anne Boleyn herself, and which is said to represent her in the dress in which 
she was executed. The countenance is of a placid commonplace character. This 
room has a fine music gallery, and a small withdrawing-room, now fitted up as a 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



2!3 




214 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

library. The needle-worked chairs, screens, and settees, are most beautiful, and 
formed part of the original furniture. 

In the church, to the left of the chancel, stands an altar-tomb to the memory of 
Sir Thomas Boleyn, first earl of Wiltshire. The top slab is inlaid with a remarkably 
fine brass, representing the earl in the full costume of a knight of the garter. In the 
neighboring church of Penshurst is also a brass monument for two of his sons, who 
died young. 

On a hill which is somewhat precipitous to the north, but is of gentle ascent in 
ether directions, stands the castle of Windsor, situated in Berkshire, about twenty- 
two miles from London. " It enjoyeth," says Camden, " a most delightful prospect 
round about ; for right in the front it overlooketh a vale, lying out far and wide, gar- 
nished with cornfields, flourishing with meadows, decked with groves on either side, 
and watered with the most mild and calm river Thames: behind it arise hills every- 
where, neither rough nor over-high, attired as it were with woods, and even dedi- 
cated as it were by nature to hunting and game." The magnificent castle which 
crowns this eminence is associated with some of the most interesting events and 
persons in the history of England. It has witnessed all the pomp of chivalry, and 
its courts have rang with the feasts and tournaments of the Edwards and the Hen- 
rys. Kings were born here, and here they are buried ; and after every change of 
fashion and opinions, it is still the proudest residence of the sovereign of England, 
as it was seven centuries ago. 

There is scarcely a point within a few miles' distance, where the castle of Windsor 
is not seen to great advantage. To the traveller upon the Bath road it presents its 
bold northern front, which comprises the longest continuous range of its buildings. 
On the road to Windsor, by Datchet, the eastern front, with its four grand towers, 
appears of itself to exceed most other edifices in magnitude. To the great park the 
southern front is displayed ; and when this part is viewed from the extremity of the 
fine avenue called the Long Walk, nothing can appear more stately. In every situ- 
ation the Round tower rises above the other buildings, and arrests the eye by its sur- 
passing dimensions. Burke has well characterized it as " the proud keep of Wind- 
sor." Sir John Denham, in his poem of Cooper's Hill (an eminence overlooking 
Runnemede), describes the majestic appearance of Windsor in the quaint and exag 
gerated tone of the poetry of his day : — 

" Such seems thy gentle height, made only proud 
To be the basis of that pompous load, 
Than which a nobler weight no mountain bears, 
But Atlas only which supports the spheres." 

The visiter to Windsor, upon turning up the street (Castle street) which leads to 
the castle, will have the south front presented to him as it is represented in the en- 
graving, p. 215. The improvements that have been made in this part within the last 
few years, are most striking. The road now leads boldly up to the castle ; and the 
observer looks without interruption upon the rich woods of the adjacent parks. A 
very short time ago a number of contemptible buildings were scattered about the 
castle, and even the superb avenue, the Long Walk, was deprived of its natural ob- 
ject (the object, doubtless, for which it was planted)— that of forming a road to the 
principal entrance to the castle, by the avenue and the entrance being crossed by a 
large plastered house and offices called the Queen's lodge. All these excrescences 
have been judiciously removed. 

The southern entrances to the castle are reserved for private use. The visiter will 
approach it through what is called the lower ward. He enters into this ward by a 
noble gateway, with two towers, built by Henry VIII. The first object which ar- 
rests his attention is the chapel of St. George, a building unrivalled in England or in 
Europe, as a perfect specimen of that richly ornamented Gothic architecture which 
prevailed in the latter end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. 
This is represented in the engraving, p. 221. Immediately to the east of this 
fine chapel is an ecclesiastical building of later erection, called Wolsey's tombhouse, 
which is now used as the dormitory of the royal family. The buildings opposite St. 
George's chapel are the residences of the decayed military officers, called the poor 
knights of Windsor. The bold tower which terminates this row of buildings, as 
well as the opposite tower called the Winchester (from its being the residence of 
William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, the architect of the castle) are the 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



215 




216 DESCRIPTION OE. ENGLAND AND WALES. 

best preserved, without much change, of the more ancient parts of the whole fabric. 
On the right, as he proceeds, the visiter looks down over a low battlemented wall, 
upon what was once the moat cf the round tower. It appears to have been in part 
a garden, as long since as the time of James I. of Scotland, who was detained here 
for some time, and has celebrated this solace of his imprisonment in* one of his 
poems. The tower itself rises in stern grandeur out of this depth. The mound 
upon which it is built is no doubt artificial. This immense tower has been consider- 
ably elevated within a few years, in common with many other parts of the castle. 

Proceeding through a gateway of two towers, whose low portal indicates its anti- 
quity, and its employment for defence, the visiter finds himself within the magnifi- 
cent quadrangle of the palace. On the north are the state apartments, in which is 
included the celebrated hall of St. George ; on the east and south the private apart- 
ments of the king and his court. The state apartments are exhibited to strangers, 
as we shall more particularly mention. Nothing can be more imposing than the 
general effect of this quadrangle. Every part is now of a uniform character. We 
look in vain for the narrow grated windows and pierced battlements of the times of 
feudal strife, when convenience was sacrificed to security. These characteristics of 
a martial age were swept away by Charles II., who substituted the architectural 
style of the age of Louis XIV., than which nothing could have been in worse taste. 
In the recent alterations of the castle, the architect has most judiciously preserved 
the best characteristics of old English domestic architecture. The engraving, p. 217, 
may give some notion of the richness and grandeur of this quadrangle. 

Returning a short distance, the entrance to the terrace presents itself to the visiter. 
After descending a flight of steps, the scene is totally changed. A prospect, unri- 
valled in extent and beauty, bursts upon the sight. Few persons can look upon this 
scene without emotion. The eye delightedly wanders over the various features of 
this remarkable landscape. It traces the Thames gliding tranquilly and brilliantly 
along, through green and shadowy banks — sometimes presenting a broad surface, and 
sometimes escaping from observation in its sudden and capricious windings ; it 
ranges as far as the distant hills — it counts the numerous turrets and spires of the 
neighboring villages — or it reposes upon the antique grandeur of Eton college. 
Gray has beautifully described this magnificent prospect in well-known lines: — 

-" From the stately brow 



Of Windsor's heights tlv expanse below 

Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey, 
Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among 
Wanders the hoary Thames along 

His silver winding way." 

The north side of the terrace is constantly open to the public ; and this is by far the 
finest part. To the eastern side, admittance is only granted on Saturdays and Sun- 
days. At the northeast angle of the terrace, the northern front of the castle is ex- 
hibited, as shown in the engraving, p. 219. 

The earliest history of Windsor castle, like that of many other ancient buildings, 
is involved in some obscurity. It is doubtful whether in the time of William the 
Conqueror and his son Rufus, it was used as a residence ; but it was certainly then a 
military post. At Old Windsor, a village about a mile and a half from the present 
castle, there was a Saxon palace, which was occasionally inhabited by the kings of 
England. Henry I. held his court therein 1105 and 1107 ; but having enlarged the 
adjacent castle with "many fair buildings," he, according to the Saxon chronicle, kept 
the festival of Whitsuntide there in 1110. In the time of Stephen, the castle, ac- 
cording to Holingshed's chronicle, was esteemed the second fortress in the kingdom. 
Henry II. and his son held two parliaments there. Upon the news of his brother 
Richard's imprisonment in the Holy Land, John took possession of the castle ; and 
after his accession to the throne, remained there, as a place of security, during his 
contests with the barons. Holingshed says, that the barons, having refused to obey 
the summons of the king to attend him in his own castle, he gave them the meeting 
at Runnemede, which ended in the signature of Magna Charta. The fortress sus- 
tained several changes of masters during the wars between the crown and the nobil- 
ity, which broke out again in the reign of John, and of Henry III. Windsor castle 
was the favorite place of residence of Edward I. and II. ; and here Edward HI. was 
born. During the long reign of this monarch, the castle, according to its present 
magnificent plan, was commenced, and in great part completed. The history of the 



i 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



217 




218 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES, 

building furnishes, in many respects, a curious picture of the manners of the feudal 
At a period when no man's possessions in England were assnrpH ♦„ k- u 

and later historians affirm that Edward ITT in , «S • ' \? lhe S ' Xth ^""V. • 

Windsor in the eighteenth ySrtf h™ d£ 'revived iTS^ST W^ ^ *' 

architect of the various buildmg wh ch Edwa rd's Js^f* cha P lai " s ' was appointed 
projected. In one vear tl rPP ,IhS ^J* 1 ™ s taste , for magnificent display had 
LployedattheLI'swa^s sSn^f'S? S1 ? workmen ^ impressed/to be 
gage in other emp oymen^for ff feaTer ItT 'T 1 ^ **?"*% L eft Windsor to en " 
to prison, and to pro* b?t a H oersons S ' "^ W T 1SSUed for their committal 
Such were them^iaw^L^^ltZr^ 1115 them . u , nder se ™e penalties, 
ciples of commercials^ the prin . 

liberty to engage with whom thev nwJJ \h es,abll ^ e . d - Had workmen been at 
men for the Nompleriorof Wio/Jr c^t u have ^ en ^want of work- 

StTK.'iSa S"more *3£^ <^™^^ 
that this immense work was com™ d as far"? eXL NT T^ ^^ 
m about seventeen years from its commencement HfZ 'lu H con } em P la ^> 
ward had founded the Order of thrGS3d.SV begun, Ed- 

completion, the festivals of this i n «2„ ' , ? g lts , P ro ? ress > and after its 

pomp of re-al staff ■ KWh,!J ♦ ins,llutlon wer ? celebrated at Windsor with every 
me ^ldTSthl^ifiSSaSS 1 t Were SeVeral times invi ^ from all parTof 
these festivals is v^u^rW^r^hviS^^^ the rea]m i anyone of 
splendor, which was ? iven in hon of JoL kino nTv^ ** t™^? a " 0thers in 
at Windsor. John, who apnears ?o h\ v »h S u FKm( L e ' who was then a Prisoner 
said, that he never knew such royal Zl, n?^™* ^U"' * recorde d to have 
ing for gold and silver Y * and feastln S s without some after-reckon- 

Edward III. erected at Windsor a chapel dedintpH mStr r , 

servjce of the Order of the Garter ■ but the T.12 K ?p ? e i° rge , ^° r the es P ecial 
It was begun bv Edward IV who found , n £ beautl { ul ^apel » of later date, 

ric, on account of its decayed' slate The inX Y l ° take down ^ original fab- 
of the reign of Henry VIII si hJiSShT? " 0t C0 ™Pl«ed till the beginning 

not ha ve heen hurried forward 5 ,&£ff M^ffiS?^ ^ ^ 
WkdsortsK °° Wffljrf St. George, 

after the reign of it hivaS founder rXSttT" ° f ™u Y P A b,ic sol ^nities 
of high treason brought by the duke of T ! H., however heard here the appeal 

it was of en the favorite country reSidon^ nf ¥?** the duke ° f Norfolk - Bl " 
larly Henry VII., cSuJd H^iK^^ ^rf V** ' S 7 eral ° f Wh ° m ' P arti ™" 
is a curious poem by the earl °f Surrey Xw^fi" ? d ™ provemeilts - T ^e 
the canons of the church, by ^eatfnJ^h n Lent Zr't " the CaSt L C ^ vi ° latin * 
we have of the kind of life whic the accomplish i V Ch P re . se "V he besl P^ure 
in their conn try .palaces, at a per o hZ ?! P fi ^T* ° f the En ^ lish court led 

for simple pleasures. He describes refinement had not taken away the relish 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



219 




220 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

" The large green courts where we were wont to hove* 
With eyes cast up into the maiden's tower ;" 

and he goes on to contrast his painful imprisonment with his former happiness 
among " the stately seats," " the ladies bright," " the dances short," " the palm- 
play,"! "the gravel-ground, "t " the secret groves," and " the wild forest," 

"With cry of hounds, and merry blasts between, 
Where we did chase the fearful hart of force." 

There must have been somewhat of tediousness in such a life, for courtiers posses- 
sing fewer intellectual resources than Lord Surrey, before letters were generally 
cultivated, and the manifold enjoyments of taste awakened ; and it is probable that 
the uninstructed high-born engaged in state intrigues, or stirred up useless wars, as 
much for the desire of excitement, as from less common motives. 

The age of Elizabeth brought with it a love of letters, and here " the maiden- 
queen" occasionally retired from the cares of state, to dictate verses to her private 
secretary, or receive the flatteries of the accomplished Leicester. " There is in the 
state-paper office an original manuscript translation of Horace's Art of Poetry, com- 
posed by Elizabeth under such circumstances. This queen built the north terrace, 
and a gallery, still called -after her name, and retaining the peculiar style of the ar- 
chitecture of her day. We have seen some original orders for various repairs of the 
castle, which show how little private accommodation was regarded in these days of 
public pageantry. The maids of honor requested to have the boarded partitions of 
their chambers carried up to the ceilings, as the pages could otherwise gaze in upon 
them as they passed <hrough the passages. There can be no doubt that an English 
palace of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries had much fewer comforts than the 
most unpretending dwelling of a tradesman of the present day. The furniture was 
scanty and cumbrous; the linen was exceedingly scarce; of porcelain there was 
none ; of glass scarcely any. The floors were covered with dirty rushes; the doors 
had crazy fastenings. Henry VIII. carried a smith about with him, with padlock 
and chain, to fasten " the door of his highness' chamber ;" and the cost and quality 
of the various materials for a new gown which the same king presented to Anne 
Boleyn, are recorded with a minuteness and solemnity which the humblest servant- 
girl would now scorn to bestow upon her finest holyday suit. 

Windsor castle was garrisoned by the parliament during the great civil war of 
Charles I. ; and it was the last prison of that unfortunate monarch. Upon the res- 
toration, Charles II. bestowed upon the castle the doubtful honor of repairing it ac- 
cording to his foreign taste. We have no accurate records of what he destroyed ; 
but the probability is, that in remodelling the interior he swept away some of the 
most valuable memorials that existed of the style of living among his predecessors. 
St. George's Hall was covered with paintings by Verrio, as were the ceilings of all 
the other state apartments; and truly nothing can be more disgusting than the 
nauseous flattery and bad taste of these productions. Most of the miserable improve- 
ments, as they were called,' of this king, have been swept away from the exterior of 
the castle ; and, in many particulars, from the interior. St. George's Hall is once 
more a Gothic room, such as the " invincible knights of old" might have feasted in. 
Charles II., however, carried the terrace round the east and south fronts. 

Queen Anne frequently resided at Windsor. In the reigns of the first and second 
Georges, it was neglected. George III. dwelt for many years in a white-washed 
house at the foot of his own palace ; till at length he determined to occupy the old 
castle. The apartments were little adapted to the notions of modern comfort, but 
the royal family continued to reside here till the death of the king. George IV. in- 
habited the castle as it was, for a few months in 1823 ; but in 1824, its general decay 
and want of accommodation were brought under the notice of parliament. Com- 
missioners were appointed for superintending the alterations, and a large sum was 
voted for the first outlay. Mr. Wyatville (now Sir Jeffery) was appointed the 
architect; and from that time till the present, the works have been carried on with 
unremitting diligence. Little now remains for the completion of the architect's 
noble design. ' 

It does not fall within our object to give any minute description of the interior of 
Windsor castle. The apartments of the king and his court are as numerous as 
they are splendid. Round the east and south sides of the quadrangle runs a corridor, 

•Loiter. f Fivesi t F or tournaments 



REGAL AND BARONIAL ANTIQUITIES. 



221 




V29, DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

forming a magnificent gallery above, and connecting the various parts of the immense 
range of offices below. The principal floor of this corridor is superbly furnished with 
pictures and statues. The chief apartments of the king and queen are in the south- 
eastern tower, and the eastern front. The dining, drawing, and music rooms are of 
extraordinary dimensions, forming that fine suite whose grand oriel windows look 
out upon the eastern terrace. They are connected, at the northeastern angle, with 
the state apartments, some of which, particularly St. George's Hall, are used on oc- 
casions of high festival. 

The state apartments are exhibited daily to the public. Several of them have 
"been completely remodelled, under the parliamentary commission for the repairs of 
the castle. The guard-room is now fitted up with great appropriateness: one of 
the most remarkable objects is a bust of Lord Nelson, having for its pedestal a por- 
tion of the mainmast of the Victory, his own ship, on lhe> deck of which he gloriously 
fell. St. George's Hall, as we mentioned before, has been entirely purified from the 
productions of the false taste of the time of Charles II. An adjoining chapel has 
been added to the original hall ; so that it is now an oblong room of vast length, with 
a range of tall pointed-arch windows looking upon the square. Its walls, panelled 
with dark oak, are hung with the portraits of successive sovereigns of the order of 
ihe Garter; and heraldic insignia of the ancient knights are borne on shields which 
surround the splendid room. Of the other new state apartments, the principal are 
the ball-room, glittering with burnished gold ; and the Waterloo gallery, in which 
are hung the fine series of portraits paintedby Sir Thomas Lawrence, of the princes, 
warriors, and statesmen, who were instrumental in forwarding that great victory. 

The remaining state apartments are pretty much in the same condition as they 
exhibited during the reign of George III. They present an assemblage of such ob- 
jects as are usually shown in palaces and noble mansions. Here are state beds, 
whose faded hangings have been carefully preserved from periods when silk and 
velvet were the exclusive possessions of the high-born ; chairs of ebony, whose weight 
compelled the sitter to remain in the place of the seat, and tables of silver, fine to 
look upon, but worthless to use. Here are also the gaudy ceilings of Verrio, where 
Charles II. and his queen are humbly waited upon by Jupiter and Neptune ; and the 
profligate who sold his country to Louis XIV. for a paltry bribe, and degraded the 
English court by every vice, is represented as the pacificator of Europe, and the 
restorer of religion. But there are better things to be seen than these in the state 
apartments. There are many pictures of great beauty, and several of transcendent 
excellence. Here is the celebrated " Misers" of Quentin Matsys, painted, as it is 
said, by a blacksmith of Antwerp, as a proof of his pretensions to aspire to marry the 
"daughter of a painter of the same place. The blacksmith, however, was no mean 
artist in other lines ; for he is said to have executed the iron tomb of Edward IV. in 
St. George's Chapel — a most remarkable specimen of elaborate ingenuity. Here is 
the" Titian and A.retin,"one of the finest specimens of the great master of the Venetian 
school ; the " Death of Cleopatra," and the " Venus attired by the Graces," of Guido ; 
the " Charles I. and the duke of Hamilton," and " the Family of Charles I.," of Van- 
dyck ; and " the Silence" of Annibal Caracci. These are paintings, with many 
others that we can not afford space to mention, which the best judges of art may come 
from the ends of the world to gaze upon. Those who are captivated by gaudy colors, 
applied to the representation of meretricious charms, may gaze upon " the Beauties 
of the Court of Charles II." 

The Round Tower is also exhibited to the public. There is nothing very remark- 
able in the apartments, except in the armory, where there are some curious speci- 
mens of the cumbrous firearms that were carried by the infantry in the early days ot 
gunpowder warfare, when matches held the place of flints, and the charge of powder 
was borne in little wooden boxes, hung about the shoulders. Here are two suits of 
mail, said to have belonged to John, king of France, and David, king of Scotland, 
who were prisoners in this tower. The legend is appropriate, but not trustworthy. 

The object at Windsor which is most deserving the lingering gaze of the stranger, 
and which loses none of its charms after the acquaintance of years, is St. George's 
Chapel. The exquisite proportions, and the rich yet solemn ornaments of the interior 
of this unrivalled edifice, leave an effect upon the mind which can not be described. 
The broad glare of day displays the admirable finishing of its various parts, as 
elaborate as the joinery work of a cabinet, and yet harmonizing in one massive and 



MANSIONS. 223 

simple whole. The calm twilight does not abate the splendor of this building, while 
it adds to its solemnity ; for then 

" The storied window, richly dight," 

catches the last rays of the setting sun : and as the cathedral chant steals over the 
senses, the genius of the place compels the coldest heart to be devout in a temple of 
such perfect beauty. The richly-decorated roof, supported on clustered columns, 
which spread on each side like the branches of a grove — the painted windows, repre- 
senting in glowing colors some remarkable subjects of Christian history — the banners 
and escutcheons of the knights of the Garter, glittering in the choir above their 
carved stalls, within which are affixed the armorial bearings of each knight com- 
panion from the time of the founder, Edward III. ; all these objects are full of in- 
terest, and powerfully seize upon the imagination. Though this building and its 
decorations are pre-eminently beautiful, it is perfectly of a devotional character ; 
and if anything were wanting to carry the thoughts above the earth, the observer 
must feel the vanity of all greatness and all honor, save the true and imperishable 
glory of virtue, when he here treads upon the graves of Edward IV. and Henry VI., 
of Henry VIII. and Charles I., and remembers that, distinguished as these monarchs 
were for contrasts of good and evil fortune, the pride and the humility, the triumphs 
and the degradations, of the one and the other, are blended in the grave — 

" Together meet the oppressor and the oppressed" — 

and they are now judged, as they wanted or exhibited those Christian excellences 
which the humblest among us may attain. We shall not attempt any description of 
the various parts of this chapel. 

There are not many monuments possessing merit as works of art in St. George's 
Chapel. The cenotaph of Princess Charlotte is a performance of some excellence 
in particular figures ; but as a whole it is in vicious taste. Edward IV. is buried 
here, beneath the steel tomb of Quentin Matsys; his unhappy rival Henry VI. lies 
in the opposite aisle, under a plain marble stone. Henry VIII. and Charles I. are 
entombed under the choir, without any memorial. At the foot of the altar is a sub- 
terranean passage communicating with the tomb-house, in which is the cemetery oi 
the present race of kings. 



CHAPTER XV. 

MANSIONS. 

England abounds in mansions of various kinds, the residences of her nobility and 
her moneyed aristocracy. Some of these reach a high degree of splendor, both in 
architecture and internal furnishings, not to speak of the delightful sylvan domains 
with which they are surrounded. 

A certain class of English mansions may be described as engrafted on the priories 
and abbeys disused at the reformation. One of the finest of these is Alnwick castle, 
one of the seats of the duke of Northumberland. 

Alnwick castle is interesting from its antiquity, the stirring events connected with 
its history, and its present state of complete restoration : it now exhibits one of the 
best specimens of the old baronial structures of Great Britain. The castle is placed 
on an eminence, which rises from the south side of the river Alne, opposite to the 
town of Alnwick. It is stated by Grose, that immediately before the Norman con- 
quest, the castle and barony of Alnwick belonged to a baron of the name of Gilbert 
Tyson, who was slain with Harold at the fatal battle which gave William the crown 
of England. The possession passed into the hands of the Norman lords De Vescy, 
where it remained until the reign of Edward I., when, in 1297, Lord William de 
Vescy dying without legitimate issue, he, by the king's license, bequeathed the castle 
and barony to the bishop of Durham, who, twelve years afterward, sold them to the 



224 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




MANSIONS. 225 

Lord Henry de Percy, from whom they have come down, in regular succession, to 
the present noble occupants. 

At whatever time a castle was first erected here, it was a place of great strength 
from a very early period. In the reign of William Rufus, Malcolm III., of Scotland, 
surnamed Cean-mohr, or Great-head, laid siege to Alnwick castle, and both he and 
his son fell in a conflict with a party of Anglo-Norman troops, who came to the as- 
sistance of the besieged. A story has long been repeated in the common histories 
connected with this siege and the death of Malcolm. It is stated that the garrison 
of the castle, despairing of succor, were on the point of surrendering to the Scotch, 
when a soldier rode forth completely armed, and, presenting the keys of the castle to 
the incautious king on the point of a spear, he suddenly pierced his eye and killed 
him, and by the fleetness of his horse escaped across the river, which was then 
swollen with rain. To this the fable adds, that the author of the successful strata- 
gem obtained the name of Percy from " pierce eye," and that he became the founder 
of the house of Northumberland. 

Alnwick castle proved disastrous to another Scotch king, "William, surnamed the 
Lion, from his having been the first to adopt the lion into the royal arms of Scotland. 
The celebrated Richard Coeur de Lion, while young, having rebelled against his 
father, Henry II., William needlessly interfered in the fray, and engaged to help the 
rebel son against his sovereign and parent. In pursuance of his engagement, he 
entered Northumberland with a tumultuary army, and laid siege to Alnwick. A, 
party of about four hundred English horse had sallied from Newcastle one morning 
in quest of adventure : they were enveloped in a mist and lost their way ; but on the 
mist suddenly clearing up, they found themselves in the neigborhood of Alnwick, 
and not far from William, who, with about sixty horse, was scouring the country, 
the rest of his army being scattered in search of plunder. William at first mistook 
the English horse for a part of his own troops ; but, being informed of his mistake, 
he. gallantly exclaimed, "Now shall we see who are good knights !" and charged. 
But he was unhorsed, taken prisoner, with a number of his attendants, and carried to 
Henry II., to whom he was presented with his legs tied beneath his horse's belly. 
Henry was doubtless exasperated at William's interference in the quarrel between 
himself and his son ; nor was the Scottish monarch released from captivity until, by 
a special treaty, he bound himself as the liegeman of Henry, and engaged to do 
homage for Scotland. This occurred in the year 1174. After Henry's death, Rich- 
ard, previous to his departure for the holy land, annulled the degrading treaty on 
being paid ten thousand marks. 

About twenty years ago, the then duke of Northumberland re-edified Alnwick 
castle at an expense, as stated, of two hundred thousand pounds. So solicitous was 
he to have the castle rebuilt after the precise model of the old one, that he preserved 
a number of stone warriors which formerly graced the battlements, and replaced 
them in their old positions ; and such as were too feeble, from age and injuries, to 
occupy their stations he dismissed, but got new statues cut to supply their place, that 
nothing might be wanting. The castle now is, therefore, quite a model of what 
Alnwick was in the days of the border chivalry. The entrance is through a large 
gate, between two high round towers; this opens into a spacious court, surrounded 
on all sides by walls with high battlements. The part of the castle which contains 
the family residence stands on an artificial elevation in the centre of the inner court 
The apar ments are fitted up in a very splendid manner. The library, which is a 
room of sixiy-four feet in length, has a very good selection of books. The chapel is 
elaborately decorated. The ceiling is an imitation of the ceiling of the chapel of 
King's college, Cambridge ; the paintings on the walls are borrowed from those of 
the cathedral of Milan ; and the genealogical table of the house of Northumberland 
is interwoven with them. The chapel is fifty feet in length, twenty-two in height 
and twenty-one in breadth. The apartments for the servants are in the towers. The 
keep or prison is partly above and partly under ground. 

Lambeth palace, which stands on the right bank of the Thames, within half a 
mile of Westminster bridge, has been for many centuries the principal residence of 
the archbishops of Canterbury. The manor belonged originally to the see of Roches- 
ter, to which it had been granted, before the Norman conquest, by a sister of Edward 
the Confessor; and it was obtained in exchange for some other lands by Baldwin, 
archbishop of Canterbury, in the year 1189. There is reason to believe, however, 
that the archbishops had a house here for at least a century before this lime. The 

15 



226 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

ancient possession of Lambeth by the see of Rochester is still commemorated by the 
payment to the latter, in two half-yearly sums, of five marks of silver, in considera- 
tion of the lodging, firewood, forage, and other accommodations, which the bishops 
of Rochester had been accustomed to receive here whenever they visited London 
When the archbishops of Canterbury first obtained possession of the place, the build- 
ings on it appear to have been old and mean. With the exception of the chapel, 
the whole of the present structure has certainly been erected since the middle of the 
thirteenth century. 

The palace, as it now appears, is an irregular, but very extensive pile, exhibiting 
specimens of almost every style of architecture that has prevailed during the last 
seven hundred years. The oldest part of it, as we have just said, is the chapel, 
which is supposed to have been built toward the close of the twelfth century. It 
consists of two apartments, divided by a richly-ornamented screen, and measuring 
together seventy-two feet in length by twenty-five in breadth. The height of the 
chapel is thirty feet. Under it is another apartment of smaller dimensions, formed 
by a series of arches, supported by pillars, and now used as a cellar, though in ancient 
times it may not improbably have served as a place of worship. Another of the 
most remarkable portions of the edifice, the great hall, was originally erected by 
Archbishop Chicheley, in the beginning of the reign of Henry VI. ; but after the 
palace had been sold by the parliament, in the time of the commonwealth, this 
magnificent apartment was pulled down. It was rebuilt, however, on the old site, 
and in close imitation of the former hall, after the restoration, by Archbishop Juxon, 
at an expense of ten thousand five hundred pounds. It stands on the right of the 
principal court-yard, and is built of fine red brick, the walls being supported by sione 
buttresses, and also coped with stone, and ^surmounted by large balls or orbs. The 
length of this noble room is ninety-three feet, its breadth thirty-eight, and its height 
fifty. The roof, which is of oak and elaborately carved, is particularly splendid and 
imposing. The gatehouse, which forms the principal entry to the palace, was erected 
by Cardinal Morton, about the year 1490, and is a very beautiful and magnificent 
structure. It consists of two lofty towers, from the summits of which is one of the 
finest views in the neighborhood of the metropolis. In front of this gate the ancient 
archiepiscopal dole, or alms, is still distributed every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thurs- 
day, to thirty poor parishioners of Lambeth. Ten are served each day, among whom 
are divided three stone of beef, ten pitchers of broth, thickened with oatmeal, five 
quartern loaves, and twenty pence in copper. 

Among the other principal apartments are the library, containing a very extensive 
and valuable collection of books and manuscripts, founded by Archbishop Bancroft in 
1610 : and the long gallery, generally supposed to have been the work of Cardinal 
Pole, who possessed the see from the death of Archbishop Cranmer, in 1556, till 1558 
This noble room contains many portraits, of which several are in the highest degree 
interesting as works of art, or on account of the individuals whom they represent.- 

Besides these apartments, the palace contains many others well deserving of notice, 
but which we can not here attempt to describe. We may merely mention the guard 
room, an ancient and venerable chamber, fifty-six feet in length, and adorned by a 
splendid timber roof; the presence-chamber, also of considerable antiquity ; the great 
dining-room, which contains a series of portraits of all the archbishops, from Laud 
to Cornwallis inclusive; the old and new drawing-rooms, , the latter a fine room, 
measuring thirty-three feet by twenty-two, built by Archbishop Cornwallis ; and the 
steward's parlor, probably built by Archbishop Cranmer. 

One of the most interesting portions of Lambeth palace is the stone building called 
the Lollard's tower. It was erected by Archbishop Chichely, in the early part of the 
fifteenth century, as a place of confinement for the unhappy heretics from whom it 
derives its name. Under the tower is an apartment of somewhat singular appear- 
ance, called the postroom, from a large post in the middle of it by which its flat roof 
is partly supported. The prison in which the poor Lollards were confined is at the 
top of the tower, and is reached by a very narrow winding staircase. Its single door- 
way, which is so narrow as only to admit one person at a time, is strongly barricaded 
by both an outer and an inner door of oak, each three inches and a half thick, and 
thickly studded with iron. The dimensions of the apartment within are twelve feet 
in lenglh, by nine in width, and eight in height ; and it is lighted by two windows, 
which are only twenty-eight inches high, by fourteen inches wide on the inside, and 
abou: half as high and half as wide on the outside. Both the walls and roof of the- 



I 



MANSIONS. 



227 




IlllflHB 



228 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

chamber are lined with oaken planks an inch and a half thick ; and eight ,arge iron 
rings still remain fastened to the wood, the melancholy memorials of the barbarous 
tvrannv whose victims formerly pined in this dismal prison-house. Many names 
and fragments of sentences are rudely cut out on various parts of the walls. 







Doorway in Lollard's Tower. 

i'he palace is surrounded bv a park and gardens, very tastefully laid out, and oc- 
cupying in all about eighteen 'acres. Among the ornaments of the grounds, are par- 
ticularly deserving of notice two Marseilles fig-trees, of great size, and still bearing 
an abundance of delicious fruit, which tradition asserts to have been planted by Car- 

' Blenheim, the magnificent seat of the duke of Marlborough, is situated about 
eight miles from Oxford, and close to the town of Woodstock. The palace itself is 
placed in the midst of an extensive park, beautiful by nature, but moulded to perfec- 
tion by art. The river Glyme runs through the park, and at a short distance before 
the principal or northern' front of the palace, widens into a large sheet of water, 
having all the appearance of a lake, at the western extremity of which the river 
turns off to the south, and winding between the grassy elevations of the park, unites 
its waters with those of the Evenlode. The visiter enters the park at a beautiful 
gate, or triumphal arch, of the Corinthian order, on the side near Woodstock, which 
was erected in 1723, by Sarah, duchess of Marlborough, after the death of the duke 
who did not live to see the work completed which was designed to honor his achieve- 
ments. Proceeding toward the southeast, he shortly arrives at an elegant structure 
called the china gallery. The road now turns to the right, and approaches the pal 
ace the higher parts of which he has seen throughout his walk through the trees 
The building was erected from the designs of Sir John Vanbrugh, in the reign ol 



MANSIONS. 



229 




230 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

Anne, by whom, with the concurrence of parliament (which voted 500 r 000Z. for its 
completion) it was conferred, together with the honor of Woodstock, on John, duke 
of Marlborough, as a testimony of royal favor and national gratitude for his services 
against the French and Bavarians. 

The name is derived from a small village on the banks of the Danube, near which 
the famous victory was gained by the duke on the 2d of August, 1704 ; on the anni- 
versary of which day, a flag or standard, painted with three fleurs-de-lis, is presented 
at Windsor to the reigning monarch, " as an acquittance for all manner of rents,, 
suits, and services due to the crown." 

Great as the parliamentary grant appears to be, much more was expended ere the 
palace and its adjacent embellishments were completed. 

The architecture of the building excited much controversy at the time, and 
although the style has found supporters, many strictures were passed on it, the se- 
verity of which the refined taste of the present day can not but acknowledge to be 
just. But if it is wanting in architectural beauty, it certainly may lay claim to much 
originality ; and if we could wish for a more elegant exterior, noihing can be more 
magnificent, and at the same time more convenient, than its interior. In describing 
so extensive a building as Blenheim, we can not do better than follow the guide 
through the rooms, in the order in which they are shown to visiters. We enter the 
large Corinthian portico at the north front (which from wing t(»wing is in length 
348 feet) and shortly find ourselves in the hall, 67 feet in height. The ceiling is 
painted by Sir J. Thornhill, with a representation of Victory crowning the duke at 
Blenheim. The sides and galleries of this noble apartment are ornamented with 
several pictures and statues of great merit. 

From the hall we proceed along a gallery to what is called the " bay-window 
room," hung with tapestry of great beauty, which, with the numerous pictures and 
mirrors, gives an air of great comfort to the apartment. The next room is the duke's 
study, full of pictures, and containing some fine bronzes. The east drawing-room, 
the grand cabinet, the little drawing-room, and the great drawing-room, are consec- 
utively shown, all of which are hung with crimson cloth, and are crowded with pic- 
tures, which it would be folly to attempt to describe. Every apartment at Blenheim 
is adorned in a similar manner, and some of the finest specimens of the old masters 
are here to be met with. The dining-room is next to be visited, a lofty and commo- 
dious apartment, containing, among other pictures, several by Sir J. Reynolds, of the 
Marlborough family. From this room we enter a magnificent apartment called the 
saloon, the lower part of which is lined with marble, of which the large door-cases 
are likewise entirely composed. The ceiling and compartments of the Avails are 
painted by La Guerre, the former being an allegorical picture complimentary to the 
duke ; the latter, the principal nations of the world. Passing from the green draw- 
ing-room, hung with tapestry, we proceed to the state drawing-room, the finest of the 
whole for the richness of its furniture, its proportions, the splendor of its decorations, 
and the taste displayed in its arrangement. It contains some fine tapestry, represent- 
ing the march to Bouchain and its siege. We next enter the state bedchamber, hung 
with blue damask, with which the furniture and bed are covered. The bedposts are 
beautifully carved and enriched with gold, their extremities being adorned with mil- 
itary trophies, and the top of the bed, rising into a dome, is surmounted by a ducal 
coronet. The whole is very elegant. The library, the next room to which the vis- 
iter is conducted, is of a more sober character, though larger than any other. It 
occupies the entire west front, and is 200 feet long by 32 wide in the centre. It is 
supported and adorned with solid marble columns, the basement being composed 
wholly of black marble, and contains the books of the Sunderland collection, con- 
sisting of 20,000 volumes ; but the whole of the collection formed by Charles, earl 
of Sunderland, is not kept in this room, there being another portion in a part of the 
palace not shown to strangers. At the upper end is a fine statue in white marble 
by Rysbrach, of Queen Anne ; and other statues, busts, and paintings, adorn th* 
walls. 

From the library we proceed along a piazza to the chapel, situated in the western 
wing, the most striking ornament of which is a monument to the memory <f John 
duke of Marlborough, and his duchess, by Rysbrach. 

We have now run over the rooms of the palace which strangers are permitted to 
view, and we once more find ourselves before the north front of the building. We 
can now visit the theatre and the Titian room adjoining. The former is very ele- 






MANSIONS. £31 

pant, and contains some beautiful scenery. The latter encloses the celebrated series 
of pictures of the " Loves of the Gods," well known by the many engravings which 
have been made after them. There is, however, little more than color to recommend 
them, for this artist, so pre-eminent in all that related to the proper management of 
his palette, appears here to have had little feeling for beauty either of expression or 
form. 

The china gallery, which we pass in coming to the house, is a small building, 
containing a fine collection of porcelain, delf, and Japan manufactures, formed by 
Mr. Spalding, and presented by him as an appendant to Blenheim, on condition that 
it should be annexed as an heirloom to the Marlborough family, unless the duke 
should choose to give it to some university, museum, or corporation. The effect of 
the glittering contents of this building, in which all colors and forms are exhibited, 
is surpassingly splendid. 

We have as yet said little of the park, and we feel that where description can 
convey no ide& of the beauties which only the eye can comprehend, the less that is 
said the better. The labors of Brown have been followed up by the taste of the suc- 
ceeding proprietors of the domain, and the result at the present time is the very per- 
fection of landscape gardening. The same praise may be awarded to the beauty 
with which the gardens are laid out. 

■ We can not, however, quit Blenheim without directing attention to the beautiful 
prospect which the view from the south front of the mansion affords. The eye, 
stretching over the beautiful lawn and pleasure grounds, commands a distant view 
of the village of Bladon rising above the trees of the " lesser park," with the bright 
prospect of the surrounding country, and the indistinct outlines of the Chiltern hills 
bounding the verge of the horizon. No view, composed as it is of so happy a union 
of nature and art, can be imagined more beautiful. 

Chatsworth, the ancient residence of the Cavendish family, and the princely seat 
of the present duke of Devonshire (whose elegant taste has added so much to the 
already renowned beauties of the spot), is situated in the vicinity of the Peak hills 
of Derbyshire. The usual entrance to the park, by which the house is approached, 
is near the little village of Edensor, but the unassuming appearance of the gate and 
the porter's lodge would not lead any one to imagine the magnificence which reigns 
within. 

The road, however, at some distance from the entrance, gains an elevation from 
which the palace may be seen surrounded by the most beautiful trees and undulating 
ground, forming a prospect where nature and art seem to have vied with each other 
to produce the most happy effect. The woodland scenery of the park, is graced by 
the refreshing waters of the river Derwent, which passes through it, and over which 
an elegant stone bridge is thrown, built by Payne, from a design said to be by Mi- 
chael Angelo. Behind the house, which forms the middle distance in the picture, 
rises a gently sloping hill shadowed by broad masses of thick foliage, and beyond 
are seen the romantic hills which skirt the peak of Derbyshire. 

Chatsworth was among the domains originally given by William the Conqueror 
to one of his attendants named William Peveril, but it afterward passed into the 
noble family of Cavendish, and has ever been a favorite residence of the earls and 
dukes of Devonshire. The plan of the present building was the production of Wil- 
liam Talman, a native of Wiltshire, who was comptroller of the works in the reign 
of William III. ; and the greater portion was built under his superintendence, but 
the whole extent of the original design has only been carried out by the present duke 
and his predecessor, who have not only completed the intentions of the architect, but 
have added considerably to the original plans, and improved the appearance of the 
whole. Talman was also the architect of Denham house, Gloucestershire, and old 
Thoresby house, in Nottinghamshire. 

Chatsworth is composed of four nearly equal sides, with an open quadrangulai 
court within, forming the portion first completed, but to this have since been added 
extensive wings and additional buildings. The sides of the court have open balco- 
nies, guarded by stone balustrades, which are divided into different sections by 
twenty-two intervening parts forming pedestals, on which are placed busts, carved 
in stone, representing some of the most distinguished men of the reign of Queen 
Anne. The middle of the court is occupied by a marble statue of Arion seated on 
the back of a dolphin, round which the clear water of a fountain is continually play- 
ing, falling into a capacious basin of Derbyshire marble below. This figure is some- 



2?>i 



MANSIONS. 




MANSIONS. 233 

times called Orpheus, but it seems more probable, as suggested by Mr. Rhodes, that 
it was intended to represent Arion the renowned musician and poet of Lesbos, who. 
returning from Italy, where he had become rich by the exercise of his talents, met 
with that fabled adventure, without which his name and excellence in music would 
probably have been little known to posterity. It is related that the sailors, in order 
to possess themselves of his riches, had determined upon his death, and with great 
politeness informed him of his approaching fate. Not at all dismayed by the in- 
telligence, he merely requested to be allowed to sing his own elegy to the sounds of 
his lyre previous to the sentence being carried into effect. This moderate request 
being acceded to, he struck a few chords, then broke into a strain of melody so en- 
chanting as to entrance the sailors and captivate the fishes. Taking advantage of 
this state of things, he jumped into the sea, lyre in hand, and being caught on the 
back of an enraptured dolphin, was safely borne to his own country, where he arrived, 
with a long train of piscivorous animals at his heels, some time before the vessel, 
the crew of which, we need scarcely say, were as much astonished as disconcerted 
at his appearance. 

There are also several other sculptures in the court, besides the ornamental carvings 
of the building, the best of which however (on the exterior) are those on the principal 
front of the house, which presents a very imposing appearance. 

But however faultless a building may be considered, there are never wanting critics 
who pretend to discover imperfections, which only exist in their own minds. Mr. 
Rhodes, in his elegant delineation of" Peak Scenery," mentions that he " once heard 
an eminent artist remark, that the principal fault in Chatsworth was an apparent 
want of apartments suited for the accommodation of the domestics of so princely a 
mansion. It is a palace to the eye, where every part seems alike fitted for the noble 
owner and his guests only, and on beholding it the spectator is naturally led to inquire 
where the servants of such an establishment are to abide." We doubt if such re- 
flections would be made by any but a professional person, and we should imagine 
that the art to conceal or disguise the residences of the domestics, or the places where 
domestic occupations are carried on, is of paramount importance in the construction 
of a building in which every part should claim the admiration of the spectator, and, 
where successfully exhibited, should claim the encomium rather than the blame of 
all who aspire to architectural taste. 

The rooms of this palace are generally spacious and lofty, some of them hung 
with/ tapestry, and all elegantly furnished ; but in the decorations of those parts of the 
mansion which have been left in their original state, the chaster taste of the present 
day has to lament the employment of artists, who, although fashionable in their 
time, are now justly condemned for the flutter and gaudiness of their productions. 
We allude to the pictures by Verrio and Laguerre (whom he employed as his as- 
sistant) which adorn, or rather disfigure the staircases, the ceilings, and walls of so 
many apartments at Chatsworth. Even the chapel is not free from the meretricious 
productions of this school. It is composed almost entirely of cedar-wood, the fra- 
grance of which in immediately perceived on entering, and abounds in carved and 
sculptured ornaments which are appropriate to the building; but it is also crowded 
with paintings which break the chastity of its appearance. When paintings are 
introduced into places of this character, they should reflect the dignity and purity 
of the religion the temple of which they are to grace; here, however, the produc- 
tions of Verrio's pencil distract the attention and lead the thoughts from the con- 
templation of religion to the follies of the world ; for although the chapel at Chats- 
worth boasts the masterpiece of Verrio, the glitter of art so supersedes the sentiment 
of nature, that little of the latter finds its way to the mind. That great satirist of the 
vices of mankind, who censured all — but himself — for the follies they were guilty of, 
has not let the productions of these painters escape his lash : — 

" And now the chapel's silver bells you hear, 
That summon you to all the pride of prayer; 
Light quirks of music, broken and uneven. 
Make the soul dance upon a jig to heaven. 
On painted ceiling's you devoutly stare, 
Where sprawl the saints of Verrio and Laguerre." 

But the looseness of design and profusion of ornament which are the blemish of 
these pictures become objects of the highest admiration when displayed under the 
chisel of the carver in wood or stone. The sober color of the material lakes away 



234 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

from the gaudiness of appearance, and the knowledge of the difficulties which have 
been encountered in the production of so unexpected an effect from its solid and 
unyielding nature, increases the pleasure with which we witness the result of the 
artist's labors. At Chatsworth are some of the finest specimens of the carving of 
Grinlin Gibbons and Samuel Watson, two artists nearly equal in talent, if not in 
fame. Some of the most beautiful specimens of this art at Chatsworth are by the 
former artist, but the greater portion is by Watson, whose receipts for the sums paid 
for the work are still preserved. 

Nothing can be imagined more beautiful than the carvings which decorate the 
walls of this palace. There is, particularly, a net containing dead game, by Gibbons, 
which exhibits the perfection of the art ; while fruit and flowers, carved with a delicacy 
which rivals the productions of nature herself, are flung around in the most graceful 
manner ; here hanging in elegant festoons from the ceiling, there dropping down the 
walls and sides of the doors, as though Pomona and Flora had mingled their treasures, 
and made Chatsworth their storehouse. 

The pictures in the possession of the duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth are not 
very numerous, but there is a long gallery near the entrance-hall lined with several 
hundreds of fine drawings and sketches by the old masters ; and there are several 
fine statues, principally collected by the present duke — among them the celebrated 
figure of the mother of Napoleon, by Canova ; and the exquisite bust of Petrarch's 
Laura, by the same sculptor, both of which are in the library. This magnificent 
room is worthy the valuable collection of books which it contains; and besides the 
statues and pictures with which it is adorned, it contains two porphyry vases, re- 
ceived from Russia, which, on account of their size and beauty, attract the attention 
of every visiter. 

The fine park which surrounds the house, and the gardens teeming with every- 
thing rare and beautiful which the floriculturist could desire, have, under the foster- 
ing care of the duke of Devonshire, whose taste on such matters is appreciated by all 
engaged in similar pursuits, become among the most celebrated in the kingdom for 
the beauty and exquisite order of their arrangements. 

Mr. Rhodes, in speaking of the beautiful views which abound at Chatsworth, 
mentions one with which he was particularly pleased, in the following manner : " A 
little to the left was the building, backed with broad and ample foliage ; cattle re- 
posing in groups on the bank of the river, or cooling themselves in the stream, 
adorned the foreground ; and the middle and remote distances, which were orna- 
mented with a palace, a bridge, and towers and temples, disclosed altogether a scene 
as rich and as lovely as the fancy of Claude Lorraine ever portrayed when under 
the influence of his happiest inspirations. Yet the foreground had more of Berghem 
than of Claude in it : the respective features which constitute the peculiar charms oi 
excellence of these great masters were most harmoniously combined ; every part was 
in character, and the whole was faithful to nature." 

Chatsworth was for some time the residence or prison of Mary Queen of Scots, a 
circumstance which has caused her name to be given to a suite of apartments in the 
building, which, however, we need scarcely say, she never could have occupied. 

Hurley house is situated on one of the most picturesque windings of the Thames, 
and but a few hundred yards from the river, the grounds extending to the banks. It 
is about five miles from" Maidenhead, and about four from Henley-on-Thames, not 
far from the Oxford road. The view from the hills above the village of Hurley is 
very fine ; and the village itself is pleasantly situated in a valley, sheltered on both 
sides of the river by gently-descending and well-wooded hills. It has an ancient 
and retired look. The houses are old and built partly of timber, with deep porches 
and seats, covered with mosses and vines, contrasting somewhat singularly with the 
smart inn and new toll-house at the entrance of the village. The church, which 
stands near the manor-house, is old and plain. 

The site of Hurley house was a Benedictine monastery, founded in the reign of 
William the Conqueror, and dedicated to the Virgin ; hence the house, which was 
built about the beginning of the seventeenth century, was termed Lady Place. The 
manor came i 
house was built by 



nto possession of the Lovelace family in the sixteenth century, and the 

ill by Sir Richard Lovelace, who was " knighted in the wars," as his 

epitaph declared, and who was reputed to have acquired a large sum of money on a 

sea expedition with Sir Francis Drake. His son was made Baron Lovelace, of 



Hurley. 



MANSIONS. 



235 




236 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

The engraving represents the garden front of the house. The hall, which was of 
large size and lofty dimensions, had two entrances, one from the garden, and one 
from the grounds leading to the Thames. The ceiling was covered with "plaster 
mouldings of elegant flowing scroll-work, intermixed with fruit and flowers; and 
the walls were also ornamented with groups of musical instruments, books, &c, 
enclosed in borders, all of plaster. On one side of this spacious apartment was a 
staircase leading to a balcony running round it, from which were doors to rooms on 
the second story. 

The rooms were panelled, as was also the hall or saloon, the panels being painted 
with landscapes, or else carved in arches and lozenges. The landscapes were about 
fifty in number, painted in a broad and free manner ; they have been attributed to 
Salvator Rosa, but we believe they were the work of Antonio Tempesta. 

The lower rooms, with their large bay windows and painted and carved panel- 
lings, must have been, especially when filled with the massive, antique furniture of 
the period, extremely rich, light, and imposing. But the upper rooms, which were 
not intended for show, presented a great contrast ; they exhibited little either of ele- 
gance or comfort. The gutters from the roof ran through them, by which the exter- 
nal air was freely admitted at all seasons, as well as a copious share of the rain. 

In the reign of James II., John Lord Lovelace " kept house" at Lady Place with 
a profuse hospitality that afterward ate like a canker into his fortune. But it was 
under cover of this hospitality that the meetings of the noblemen of England were 
held, which resulted in the revolution of 1688. The vault under the hall of the 
house was the burial-vault of the monastery which formerly occupied the site ; an 
inscription on the floor records that " three bodies in Benedictine habits were found 
under this pavement." The ceiling of the vault is about six feet and a half high. 
In the engraving on the next page the recess is exhibited, where, it is believed, on 
local tradition, that various papers respecting the calling in of the prince of Orange, 
&c, were signed. The following inscription records the chief facts connected with 
the history of the vault : — 

" Dust and Ashes, 
Mortality and Vicissitude to all. 

"Be it remember'd, that the Monastery of Lady Place (of which this Vault was 
the Burial Cavern) was founded at the time of the great Norman Revolution ; by 
which Revolution the whole state of England was changed. 

" Hi motus animorum ; atque hasc certamina tanta, 
PulveriS exigui jactu compressa quiescunt. 

" Be it also remember'd, that in this place Six Hundred Years afterwards, the 
Revolution of 1688 was begun. This House was then in the Possession of the Fam- 
ily of Lord Lovelace ; by whom private meetings of the Nobility were Assembled in 
the Vault; and it is said that several consultations for calling in the prince of Orange 
were held in this recess. On which account this Vault was Visited by that power- 
full Prince after he had ascended the Throne. 

" Be it also remember'd that on the 29th of May, 1780, this Vault was Visited by 
General Paoli, Commander of the Corsicans in the Revolution of that Island. 

" Be it remember'd 
that this Place was Visited by 
their Majesties King George 
the third &c Queen 
Charlotte, on monday 
the 14th of November 
1785." 
Lord Lovelace was rewarded by King William with the post of captain of the 
band of gentlemen pensioners. He fitted up Lady Place with great splendor, and 
lived in a style which involved him so much in debt, that the greater portion of his 
estate was sold under a decree of the court of chancery. The house then passed 
through various bands. In 1837, its dilapidation condemned it to be pulled down. 
On the occasion of the visit when the drawings were made, the vault was in a state 
df decay. It was originally very dry, but the rain had penetrated through the ceil- 
ing, and seemed to be doing considerable mischief. 

The superb mansion of Castle Howard, stands in a noble park about six miles 
west of Malton in Yorkshire. The exterior of the edifice, as a whole, is grand, and 



MANSIONS. 



237 




23S DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

imposing, though not free from the charge of want of unity in its parts. The design 
for the buildings was made by Sir John Vanbrugh, the eminent architect of Blen- 
heim ; but one of the wings was built much more recently by Sir James Robinson, 
and to him is owing the alleged incongruity. The front is very long, and the whole 
pile, with its cupolas, its roofs, and its massive clustered chimneys, is stupendous. 
The approach is through an ancient gateway flanked with appropriate towers. The 
site of the present mansion was formerly occupied by the old castle of Hinderskelf, 
which was destroyed by an accidental fire. Castle Howard, its successor, was erected 
by the third earl of Carlisle, as he has himself informed us in some verses, amiable 
in sentiment but not remarkable for spirit or elegance. The north front consists of 
an elaborate centre of the Corinthian order, with a cupola rising over the top, and 
on either side extensive wings, the east according to the original design, the west 
from Sir James Robinson's. The south or garden front is also very magnificent. 
Its centre, consisting of a pediment and entablature supported by fluted Corinthian 
pilasters, is approached by a grand flight of steps, and the view from these of the 
whole front is strikingly noble. At the extremity of the east wing is the kitchen 
with square towers at the angles. Before the south front a beautiful turf terrace, 
decorated with statues, extends away from the house for the space of half a mile, 
where it terminates in an Ionic temple with four porticoes and a beautiful interior. 
The cornices of the door-cases are supported by Ionic columns of black and yellow 
marble ; and in the corners of the room are pilasters of the same beautiful material. 
In niches over the door are various ancient busts. The floor is disposed in compart- 
ments of antique marble of various colors, and the whole crowned with a richly 
gilded dome. 

The interior of the castle fulfils all that the imagination, warmed by the outward 
grandeur, can expect or desire. The lofty and richly-decorated rooms are everywhere 
teeming with objects of curiosity and vertu, and with the works and masterpieces of 
human skill, pictures, statues, and busts. To give our readers an adequate idea of 
the amazing riches scattered about in the greatest profusion, and attracting the eye 
in every apartment of the building, is impossible. The pictures, for instance, are 
too numerous to allow us even to mention their names, although they are almost 
inestimable in value, as they are almost countless in number. Among them are 
works by almost every great master; we may mention Titian, Rubens, Guido, the 
brothers Caracci, Rembrandt, Domenichino, Salvator Rosa, Holbein, Jansens, Wouv- 
ermans, Velasquez, Vandyck, Sir Peter Lely, Sir Joshua Reynolds, &c. There are 
three paintings in particular, which formed a part of the celebrated Orleans Gallery, 
and which found their way to England during the troubles of the French revolution. 
One is the " Finding of Moses," a fine specimen of the characteristic genius of the 
Spanish painter Don Diea:o Velasquez ; another is the " Entombing of Christ," by 
Ludovico Caracci, a painting of extraordinary pathos, grandeur, and sublimity. But 
the most valuable of the three, and not only of the three, but of the whole collection, 
is the " Three Marys," by Annibal Caracci. "In this astonishing effort of art," says 
Mr. Henderwell, "all the excellences of painting are united. In drawing, in color- 
ing, and in composition, indeed, it can not be surpassed. The moderate size of the 
canvass enables the eye to take in at once the whole subject, and the figures are so 
skilfully grouped, so prominent and so distinct, with a separate yet suitable adapta- 
tion of interest to their several characters, as forcibly to arrest the attention. The 
lifeless body of Christ exhibits a most solemn and affecting image of death, appeal- 
ing in the most awful manner to all the feelings which Christians associate with that 
event. The mother of Jesus, overwhelmed with sorrow and in a fainting attitude, 
contrasts in a masterly manner with the dead body of her son extended at her feet. 
The strong emotions of grief and terror expressed by the elder Mary, at the appa- 
rent extinction of her daughter's life, exhibit distress of a more varied kind than that 
of Mary Magdalen, which is an agonizing and concentrated wo heightened to the 
most extreme degree of poignancy ; and it is truly astonishing that such fixed despair, 
such sense of excruciating misery, could have been depicted on the human counten- 
ance without tending toward grimace or distortion." It is said that the court of 
Spain offered to cover it with louis-d'ors as its purchase-money, which have been 
estimated to amount to about £8,000 ; but it is added, that still more has been offered 
for it in England. 

The hall of the mansion, measuring thirty-five feet square and sixty in height, is 
surmounted by a dome with Corinthian columns, the top of which is one hundred 



MANSIONS. 



239 




240 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

feet from the floor : it is very handsome and noble* On the walls are representations, 
by Pellegrini, of the history of Phaeton, with the four seasons, the twelve signs, &c. 
In recesses are statues of Augustus, Marcus Aurelius, and other works of ancient 
sculpture. There are also many antique busts on pedestals. In the saloon, a noble 
room, are many more statues and busts, with a number of pictures. The ceiling is 
embellished with a representation of Aurora. The chimney-piece of the dining- 
room is unusually superb. The cornice of white and sienna marbles, with groups of 
polished white in the centre, is supported by fluted columns of sienna marble. Upon 
it are three fine bronzes. This room also contains two beautiful slabs of Sicilian 
jasper, and a valuable urn or vase of green porphyry, with many busts and pictures. 
In the breakfast-room are two elegant tables of verd antique, with various bronzes 
and pictures; and in a dressing-room are two curious cabinets of precious stones. 
The antique gallery, measuring one hundred and sixty feet by twenty, among many 
other curiosities, contains various rare and beautiful slabs, and a small antique statue, 
found in Severus's wall, gilt and inlaid. The walls of the drawing-room are richly 
decorated with tapestry, from designs by Rubens. In the same apartment are two 
pedestals of green porphyry, on one of which is a sylvan deity. The museum con- 
tains a great assemblage of interesting objects: among these are thirteen urns, 
wherein were deposited the ashes of ancient heroes, an ancient mask, many busts, 
vases, &c. In the southwest corner is an object to gladden the heart of every anti- 
quarian, of every scholar, and of every man of taste: we allude to a small cylin- 
drical altar, about four feel and a half high, which is supposed to have stood in the 
temple of Apollo at Delphi, according to the site ascribed to it by Chandler. A tablet 
on its top bears the following inscription commemorating a circumstance of addi- 
tional interest connected with it, relating to the agency by which it was transported 
hither ■- 

" Pass not this ancient altar witli disdain, 

'Twas once in Delphi's sacred temple reared ; 
From this the Pythian poured her mystic strain, 
While Greece its fate in anxious silence heard. 

" What chief, what hero of the Achaian race, 
Might not to this have bowed with holy awe; 
Have clung in pious reverence round its base, 
And from the voice inspired received the law ? 

" A British chief, as famed in arms as those, 
Has borne this relic o'er th' Italian waves, 
In war still friend to science, this bestows, 
And Nelson gives it to the laud he saves." 

In the centre of four avenues of stately trees in the park, stands an obelisk, one 
hundred feet in height, bearing on one side inscriptions in Latin and English, com- 
memorative of the successes of the Duke of Marlborough ; on the other the verses 
we have before alluded to, recording that the plantations around and the magnificent 
edifice they enclose, owe their existence to the third earl. The date on the pillar is 
1712. The park and grounds are very extensive, and arranged on a scale of jrran- 
deur commensurate with the importance of the mansion and the family to which 
they belong, and the eye is everywhere delighted with the intermixture of lake, lawn, 
and forest. A splendid mausoleum stands about half a mile from the house. 

Ii is a circular building fifty feet in diaine er, with a lofty dome surmounted by 
a colonnade of twenty-five pillars of the Roman Doric order, the whole standing 
upon an elevated basement, which is reached by two flights of steps. The inside is 
very handsome : the cornice from which the dome rises is supported by eight columns, 
each standing on its pedestal ; the dome is eniirely of masonry, wrought in elegant 
compartments, and the pavement, corresponding in style, is inlaid with bronse or- 
naments, intermixed with various marbles. The ornaments generally are very light 
and beautiful. The basement contains sixty-four catacombs built under groined 
arches. Here repose the remains of the third earl. At the entrance of the wood, 
which shefers ihe house from the east, stands a square pedestal decorated with an- 
tique medallions, and supporting an urn with various figures representing the sacri- 
fice of Iphigenia. 

Cobham hall is described by Hasted, in his "History of Kent," as a noble and 
stately building, consisting of a centre and two wings ; the former being the work 



MANSIONS. 



241 




16 



242 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

of Inigo Jones, and the latter having been made uniform, cased with brickwork, 
sashed, and otherwise modernized, about fifty years ago. The park is extensive, but 
it was formerly much more so, and is finely interspersed with wood and stately trees. 
Some of the oaks are twenty feet and upward in circumference, and Hasted mentions 
a chestnut-tree which was twenty-three feet in girth ; and he states that the park had 
the reputation of producing venison of superior quality, and that the celebrity which 
it enjoyed was occasioned by the peculiar excellence of the herbage. 

In the fifteenth century, the manor and estates of Cobham were in possession of 
Joan, granddaughter and heiress of John, Lord Cobham. She is said to have been 
married five times, and one of her husbands was Sir John Oldcastle, who assumed 
the title of Cobham. The freedom with which he was disposed to view spiritual 
matters drew down upon him the bitter spirit of persecution which distinguished the 
times of Henry V., during the second year of whose reign (1414) the statute against 
heretics was obtained. By this, the chancellor, judges, sheriff's, justices of the peace, 
and all who had any share in the administration of the law, were sworn to exert 
their whole labor and diligence to search and destroy all manner of heresies, errors, 
and Lollardies. Persons convicted of heresies were to forfeit all their possessions. 
Under the direction of Archbishop Chicheley, the bishops and superior clergy made 
diligent inquiries in parishes where persons suspected of heresy were supposed to 
dwell ; and in order to remove, as far as possible, all grounds of suspicion, three re- 
spectable men were to swear whether they knew of any one differing in life and 
manners from others, or supporting error, or having suspicious books, and to denounce 
them. The Lollards at that period alarmed both the ecclesiastical and secular power. 
It is stated in Wilkin's " Concilia," that, at this period, a book belonging to Sir John 
Oldcastle had been seized at the shop of a limner, with whom it had been left to be 
illuminated. This book was taken to the king, by whom it was read in Sir John's 
presence, and declared to contain heterodox opinions ; and the king asked Sir John 
if he did not think so, to which he replied in a guarded manner, saying that he had 
not read two pages of the book. The clergy charged him with harboring the Lol- 
lards, and supporting their opinions ; but Sir John, who had been the intimate friend 
of the king in his younger days, and, as Dr. Lingard alleges, the original of Sir John 
Falstaff, was protected from any process before the usual tribunals, in order that the 
efficacy of the royal efforts might be tried in inducing him to abandon his errors. 
These "were unsuccessful, and the king, after upbraiding, proceeded to threaten, on 
which Sir John Oldcastle retired to his castle of Cowling, in Kent. The archbishop 
was ordered to proceed against him, and his virtue was put to such severe proof, tha' 
he was soon obliged to choose between safety at the expense of truth or martyrdom 
The questions with which he was pursued having elicited grounds of conviction, he 
was declared guilty of heresy, and excommunicated. The primate procured for him 
a respite of fifty days, during which he escaped from the tower. Immediately aftei 
his obtaining his liberty an insurrection broke out, with which he is said to have 
been connected. In the proclamation issued by the king, it is declared that they (the 
Lollards) meant to destroy him, to confiscate the possessions of the church, to secu- 
larize the religious orders, to divide the realm into confederate districts, and to ap- 
point Sir John Oldcastle president of the commonwealth. It does not, however, 
appear to be satisfactorily proved, though occupying so conspicuous a part in the 
proclamation, that he was at all concerned in the insurrection. He contrived to 
elude his pursuers for more than two years. In 1616, after a feeble attempt made 
by the Lollards to disturb the country, which it is alleged drew Sir John Oldcastle 
from his retirement, he was taken prisoner after an obstinate resistance. He was 
arraigned before the peers, whose authority he refused to acknowledge, on the ground 
that Richard II. was alive in Scotland, and was sentenced to be hanged as a traitor, 
and burned as a heretic. His widow kept possession of the estates, and died in 1433. 
From this period to 1596 the Cobham estates descended in lineal succession. In 
that year they came into possession of Henry Lord Cobham, who was lord warden 
of the cinque ports, and constable of Dover castle, lord-lieutenant of the county, and 
a knight of the garter. In 1603 this nobleman, with his brother and sWe others, 
was accused of having been engaged in Sir Walter Raleigh's conspiracy. They 
were brought to trial at Winchester, the plague then raging in London, charged 
with conspiring against the king's life, Avith a view to alter the established religion, 
subvert the government, and aid an invasion. They were found guilty, and judgment 
of death was pronounced against them. Lord Cobham's brother was executed, but 



MANSIONS. 243 

the capital sentence was remitted in his own case; but being deprived of his estates, 
iived in great poverty until his death in 1619. 

The Cobham estates by this means came into possession of the crown, and, in 
1612, James I. granted them to the duke of Lennox, one of his own kinsmen. At 
the close of the seventeenth century they were sold, to enable the owner to pay off 
his debts. 

The ancient manor-house of Knowle is situated in an extensive park, near the 
pleasant town of Sevenoaks, in Kent, and is deeply interesting, not only from its an- 
tiquity and the air of primitive grandeur that reigns throughout the domain, but from 
the memories of the distinguished men who have found a home beneath its roof, and 
from its possession of so many of those great creations of the ^ncil which are a won- 
der and a delight to all ages. 

The date of the erection of the earliest part of the mansion is unknown. In the 
time of King John, Baldwin de Bethun possessed the manor, and from him it passed 
successively into the hands of the Mareschals, earls of Pembroke, and the Bigods, 
earls of Norfolk. In the reign of Edward I., Otho de Grandison was its lord, and by 
his successors it was conveyed to Geoffrey de Say, " admiral of all the king's fleets." 
Ralph Leghe appears to have been its next owner, by whom it was sold, in the reign 
of Henry VI., to James Fienes, who was connected by marriage with its former pos- 
sessors, the Says. He was a soldier, who had distinguished himself in the war with 
France under Henry V., and was by Henry VI. summoned to parliament as Baron 
Say and Seale. Honors came thick upon him : he was successively appointed gov- 
ernor of Dover castle, warden of the cinque ports, chamberlain, and ultimately treas- 
urer, of England. These dignities were dearly purchased by the ill-will and hatred 
of the people. When the rebellion, headed by Jack Cade, broke out, foremost among 
the nobles most obnoxious to the rebels was their own countryman, Lord Say. He 
was accordingly committed to the tower, probably for the double purpose of insuring 
his safety, and gratifying, by the appearance of the king's disapprobation, those who 
were clamoring for his blood. He was, howeve., taking thence by Cade, and, after 
a kind of trial in the Guildhall, his head was struck off. Our readers will remember 
the scene in Shakspere's Henry VI., illustrative of this tragedy, and the touching, 
yet dignified defence of the doomed nobleman. Under other circumstances, the rea- 
sons given by Cade for his savage determination would be irresistibly ludicrous. He 
says to Lord Say : " Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in 
erecting a grammar school ; and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books 
but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printed to be used ; and, contrary to the 
king, his crown and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill !" But a little time before, 
Cade had defeated the king's troops, and put th^ir leaders to the sword, in the im- 
mediate neighborhood of Knowle, Lord Say's mansion. 

In the civil wars, the next Lord Say was compelled to sell Knowle to Thomas 
Bourchier, archbishop of Canterbury. In the sale was included all the tymbre, 
wood, ledde, stone, and breke," then lying in a quarry at Seale, intended probably by 
Lord Say for the rebuilding of the mansion ; and to which purpose the materials 
would doubtless be applied by the archbishop, who, says Hasted, in his " History of 
Kent," rebuilt the manor-house, enclosed a park round it, and left, it (a magnificent 
bequest) to his successors in the see. By two of these, Morton and William of 
Wareham, the structure was enlarged and beautified. Kings Henry VII. and VIII. 
each visited Knowle during this period. In the reign of the la^er, Cranmer gave up 
Knowle to the rapacious monarch. In the second year of the reign of Edward VI. it 
was granted to the protector Somerset, and, after his execution, to one no less unfor- 
tunate, the duke of Northumberland, the relative of Lady Jane Grey. By Queen 
Mary it was granted to Cardinal Pole, " to hold during the term of his natural life, 
and one year after, as he should by his last will determine." The cardinal dying 
(on the same day as his royal mistress) intestate, Knowle again became the property 
of the crown, and was granted by Elizabeth to her favorite, the earl of Leicester. By 
him it was surrendered back, in a few years, to the donor, though not before he had 
granted a lease for a term of years. At the expiration of the lease, Knowle came 
into the possession of the family to which it has ever since belonged, the Sackviiles, 
to one of whom, Thomas Sackville, a distinguished poet and statesman, the reversion 
had been previously granted. He was the author of the first regular tragedy in our 
language, " Gorboduc," which was exhibited by the students of the temple he then 
belonged to, as one of their Chnstma? entertainments. It was again exhibited ->, 



244 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

1561, before Queen Elizabeth. He was also the author of two poetical pieces in the 
"Mirror for Magistrates," of which the editor of the "Pictorial History of England" 
says: "They evince a strength of creative imagination which had been unknown to 
the English muse since the days of Chaucer ; and the Induction especially, which is 
throughout a splendid gallery of allegorical paintings, entitles Sackville to the re- 
nown of having had no small share in lighting the way to the greatest painter in our 
own or any other poetry — the divine Spenser." These poems were composed while 
the author was yet but Thomas Sackville, afterward to become, by Elizabeth's favor, 
Lord Buckhurst, and ultimately the first earl of Dorset. Two anecdotes, illustrative 
of the pride of Sackville's character, have been recorded, though on no very certain 
testimony. He had spent, principally in an embassy to France, so much of his fur- 
tune by what Fuller calls his " magnificent prodigality," as to be compelled to bor- 
row of a certain city alderman, who on one of Sackville's visits kept him waiting a 
considerable time. The indignity at once reclaimed him from his expensive habits. 
The other circumstance is in relation to his imprisonment in his own house, by the 
queen's commands, for nine or ten months. He had been sent into the Low Coun- 
tries to examine the truth of the charges made against the earl of Leicester, whence 
he was recalled by the influence of the latter, and disgraced. During this confine- 
ment, it is said, he would not allow his wife or any member ol his family to see him. 
The death of his enemy restored him to Elizabeth's favor, and on Burleigh's death 
he was appointed to the high office of lord-treasurer. 

Tn 1613, a considerable portion of the house was burnt down. In the common- 
wealth, the estate and mansion were sequestrated by Cromwell, who held a court 
here (it is said in the present dining-parlor) for the purpose. Our space will only 
permit us to notice another of the lords of Knowle — Charles Sackville, earl of Dor- 
set, the poet, and the libertine of the court of Charles the Second, the Mecsenas of 
his time, whom Dryden, Butler, Wycherley, and Congreve, at home, and St. Evre- 
mond and La Fontaine abroad, alike praised for his taste and judgment, his elegance 
and his generosity. The latter quality, we fear, had undue weight with at least one, 
the greatest of his admirers, when we consider the apparent delicacy, but real gross- 
ness, of the compliment paid to him by Dryden, who, having undertaken to produce 
English authors superior to those of antiquity, observed : " I would instance your 
lordship in satire, and Shakspere in tragedy !" We have somewhere read a pleas- 
anter anecdote of the same parties. The company they were in, disputing as to 
which could write the best impromptu, agreed each to try, and chose Dryden as the 
judge. All but the earl of Dorset seemed to take great pains ; he carelessly scrawled 
a few words, and threw the paper upon the table. The effusions being examined, 
Dryden observed he thought the company would unanimously agree with him, that 
nothing could surpass the earl's, which he begged to read : " I promise to pay to Mr. 
John Dryden, or order, five hundred pounds, on demand. Dorset." 

Of the magnificent state kept up in the good old days of Knowle, we may have 
some conception from a catalogue of the household and family of Richard, earl of 
Dorset, i bout 1620, given in Bridgman's account of the mansion. From this it ap- 
pears, that for a considerable period there sat at the lord's table eight persons ; at the 
parlor table twenty-one, including ladies in waiting, chaplain, secretary, pages, &c. ; 
at the clerks' table in the hall twenty, consisting principally of the heads of the dif- 
ferent domestic departments ; at the nursery table four ; at the long table in the hall 
forty-eight inferior servants; at the laundry table twelve; and in the scullery six. 

The house stands in a park distinguished for the richness of its turf, and the stately* 
grandeur of its oaks, its beeches, and its chesnuts. Its extent is considerable, being 
above five miles in circumference. The plantations are dispersed in broad and spa- 
cious masses. Deer, noted for their fine flavor, dart nimbly and shyly to and fro. 
The surface, here smooth and level, there broken and undulating, is everywhere 
beautiful ; and the eye, charmed with the green luxuriance around, almost forgets to 
look for the greater attraction that brought it hither. But soon the mansion breaks 
upon the view ; we think (and step eagerly along the while) of its age and its pic- 
tures, of the Says, the Cranmers, and the Sackvilles. The front is now before us. 
Two lofty embattled towers guard the gate of entrance in the middle, and on either 
side are spacious wings, pierced with three stories of windows. The parts are plain, 
but the whole is imposing ; and this character generally pervades the mansion. The 
principal buildings, in addition to the two fronts with their embattled gateways, are 
in the form of a large quadrangle, with a smaller one behind, relieved in the mass 



MANSIONS. 




246 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

by numerous square towers, the architecture being chiefly in the castellated style. 
In the quadrangle are casts from the Gladiator and the Venus. The lofty and exten- 
sive Gothic hall, with its characteristic-looking table fitted for the playing the old 
English game of shuttle-board, its richly-carved screen, its raised dais, and its stained 
glass, at once make us centuries older: we not only think of, but feel with, the past. 
The loneliness seems suddenly to be broken — the bustle of countless attendants going 
in and out begins, the tables groan with the profusion of the feast, bright jewels and 
still brighter eyes begin to sparkle, gorgeous vestments and sacerdotal robes mingle 
together, the solemn strains of music peal forth — it is some high festival ! Alas ! of 
our imagination only, as we are soon convinced by the gentle hint of the domestic at 
our elbow, which we obey, and move forward. The noble proportions of the hall 
may be conceived when we state its size : it is nearly seventy-five feet long, twenty- 
seven broad, and twenty-seven high. 

A statue, said to be (we conceive wrongly) of Demosthenes, now claims our atten- 
tion: it is more characteristic of the calm but earnest philosopher, than the excited 
and exciting orator. It is considered one of the most perfect works of antiquity we 
possess ; its simple truthfulness of expression delights us, and convinces us we ought 
to be delighted. There are here pictures by Rubens, Jordaens, and Snyders, and 
several family portraits. The Triumph of Silenus is one of Rubens's most powerful 
■'vorks: the face of Silenus so richly inebriate, almost ready you could fancy to burst 
with the purple wine, the satyr leering over Silenus's shoulder, and the general vigor 
of the piece — make this painting alone worthy a visit to Knowle. The rude frescoes 
that decorate the staircase are evidently genuine restorations, and speak much for 
the directing taste. In the Brown Gallery there is a collection of portraits, the extent 
of which alone entitles it to be considered most interesting and valuable. There is 
scarcely a celebrated person of the last two or three centuries whose picture may not 
be found included. Unfortunately the authenticity of many of the portraits is ques- 
tionable ; as works of art, also, they do not possess any high merit, most of them 
being considered as indifferent imitations of the style of Holbein. In a dressing- 
room there are a Venus by Titian, a Salutation by Rembrandt, a Satyr and Venus 
by Correggio, and a Landscape by Salvator Rosa. The billiard-room contains a fine 
portrait of Sir Kenelm Digby, by Vandyck, and copies of Titian's wonderful pieces, 
the Diana and Calisto, and the Diana and Actseon. There are here also a Masquerade 
Scene by Paul Veronese, a St. Peter by Rembrandt, and a landscape by Poussin. 
The window is embellished with the picture of a man on horseback, with an in- 
scription to the founder of the Sackville family, who came over with William the 
Conqueror. In the Venetian bedroom (so called from a Venetian ambassador, Nicolo 
Molino, having slept in it), is a glorious sketch, by Rubens, of Meleager and the 
Boar; a portrait of Mrs. Abingdon, by Sir J. Reynolds; and the Death of Cleopatra, 
by Domenichino. The ballroom contains portraits, among many others, of Edward, 
the fourth earl of Dorset, and of Ann, the third countess. The former killed Lord 
Bruce in a duel, in 1613, which was fought under circumstances of the most savagely 
ferocious nature ; there being, for instance, no seconds, lest their interference might 
restrain the principals from the full and bloody consummation they meditated. The 
latter we notice as the writer of the following characteristic note to Charles the Sec- 
ond's secretary of state, in answer to a recommendation from him of a person to sit 
for her borough of Appleby: "I have been bullied by a usurper, I have been neg- 
lected by a court, but I will not be dictated to by a subject. Your man sha'n't stand. 
Ann, Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery." In the drawing-room is a portrait of a 
Chinese youth, who came to England to be educated, and was placed at the school 
of Sevenoaks. Some more great works adorn with their imperishable beauty the 
walls of this apartment: a Holy Family, by Titian; the same subject, by Paul 
Veronese ; a Posthouse, by Wouverman ; the Rape of the Wife of Hercules, by 
Annibal Caracci; a head of Raphael, and a Sibyl by Domenichino, &c. The mere 
enumeration of such subjects by such painters would suffice to satisfy the lover of 
art that there must be much to delight him at Knowle. In the dining or poet's 
parlor are portraits of almost every distinguished poet of England, a series that 
alike interests the national pride and individual love and admiration. But we 
must pass on more rapidly, merely noticing in our way the chapel-room, with its 
carved work of our Savior bearing the cross, said to be of one piece, and to have be- 
longed to Mary Queen of Scots ; the organ-room, containing, as we are informed, the 
first organ evei made (its very primitive construction certainly does not contradict 



MANSIONS. 247 

the statement), being a large box with rude finger-keys on the top, outside ; the great 
Cartoon gallery, containing a set of copies of the immortal Cartoons of Raphael ; 
and lastly, the king's bedroom, in which is the gorgeous bed of gold and silver tissue, 
said to have cost 8,000/., and made for King James to rest in one night only. An 
act of magnificent loyalty ! but one which, if it were to be taken by the nobles as a 
precedent, would doubtless make them wish kings' visits, like angels', to be " few 
and far between." In a colonnade there are some fine pieces of sculpture ; a fountain 
nymph asleep, from Roma Vecchia, and a head of Antinous, from Hadrian's villa, &c. 

Quitting the mansion, we once more feel the fresh bracing air of the park playing 
about our brow. Sight-seeing, however worthy the objects, necessarily fatigues the 
mind by the continual calls made upon its admiration. Therefore well pleased do 
we stroll along one of the verdurous paths, careless which we choose, in the cer- 
tainty of finding all delightful. And what a scene presently breaks upon us ! We 
are on the rising ground that skirts a gentle valley ; the green murmuring forest is 
behind and above, while before — woods and heaths, towns and villages, churches 
and mansions, stretch away toward the distant hills of Hampshire ; but above all, 
reposing on a gentle swell of the ground, making the eye gleam with pleasure but 
to see it, and the heart reverentially glad but to hear its name, is Penshurst, the 
home of the Sydneys ; fair enough, as we now see it, to have inspired the Arcadia 
of the poet, and solemn enough, in its gloomier hours, to have cherished the noble 
daring, the firm resolve, and the unflinching fortitude of the patriot. 

Wilton house, in the county of Wilts, stands in a beautiful park at the entrance 
to the borough town of Wilton, about three miles from Salisbury. The country 
around it is level, and accordingly the seat is not distinguished for its commanding 
position or its picturesque neighborhood. But the solid magnificence of the house, 
the serenely beautiful aspect of its grounds, and above all, the inestimable treasures 
of art for which Wilton is so deservedly famous, give to it a deeper interest than 
many more happily-situated edifices can inspire. In the grounds are some fine cedars 
of Lebanon, and at one end of the gardens is a handsome piece of architecture, in 
the sbape of a porch or gateway, of very beautiful proportions, with two rows of 
pillars, one above the other, and recesses containing busts. This was designed by 
Hans Holbein, and attached formerly to the front of the building erected under the 
superintendence of that distinguished artist. This piece of architecture is all that 
remains of Holbein's work. From the appearance of colors it exhibits, it must have 
been formerly painted. The river Wily passes through the park, and is spanned 
near the house by a stately bridge. 

The approach is through a Roman triumphal arch, surmounted by an equestrian 
statue of Marcus Aurelius. The house stands on the site of the once noble monas- 
tery of Wilton, which was so distinguished as to give the rank of baroness to the 
abbess, a right enjoyed by^only three other establishments of the same kind. On the 
dissolution of the religious houses by Henry VIII., the monastery lands were granted 
to William, first earl of Pembroke. There are no remains of the ancient edifice. 

Wilton house was begun in the reign of Henry VIII., and finished in the reign of 
Edward VI., the designs for the erection being made by the eminent artist Holbein. 
A portion of this was burnt, and subsequently rebuilt by Inigo Jones in a markedly 
different style. 

The interior of Wilton is literally crowded with busts, statues, and pictures, col- 
lected chiefly by the munificent industry of the eighth earl, who first purchased 
in 1678 the well-known Arundel collection, then afterward obtained considerable 
portions of the collections of Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin, and lastly some 
busts from the Valetta gallery at Naples. In the hall are various family trophies 
and memorials, particularly some French suits of armor brought from the battle of 
St. Quentin, one of them belonging to Montmorency, constable of France, whom the 
earl of Pembroke made prisoner. From the hall we pass into a light and ele£ramly- 
proportioned corridor, which runs round all the four sides of the courtyard, with the 
doors of the different apartments of the mansion opening into it. Here nearly two 
hundred pieces of antique sculpture, many of them of almost incalculable value, 
are ranged in the order most admirably calculated for their appropriate display- The 
task of thus disposing them was intrusted to Mr. Westmacott, himself must honor- 
ably distinguished among modern sculptors. A portion of this corridor was built by 
the present earl, to whose taste and liberality Wilton is much indebted. We now 



248 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

proceed to notice a few of the works that seem the most remarkable for their beauty 
or grandeur, or most interesting from any peculiar causes. 

And first, of the busts : we may mention an aged faun, which, though mutilated, 
exhibits still the spirit of its composition ; a female bust, of very elegant workman- 
ship, called Marcia Ottalica ; a young faun looking eagerly round, the conception of 
which is as strikingly original as the execution is finished and delicate ; and lastly, 
a verv pleasing bust of Lucilla, daughter of Antoninus, and wife of Lucius Verus. 
Among the statuary are many pieces of workmanship, of a grand and beautiful 
character. One of them is a tomb or sarcophagus found near Athens by some trav- 
ellers. It is about six feet four inches in length, two in breadth, and two in height, 
including the raised lid or cover. On the latter the seasons are allegorically repre- 
sented in bas-relief, and on the tomb the history of the descent of Ceres to the earth, 
the recovery of Triptolemus, the youthful son of Celeus, king of theEleusinians, and 
his education by the goddess, to fit him for the mission on which he finally departed, 
namely, to teach the world the art of agriculture. A Greek inscription informs us 
that it is " dedicated to the infernal gods, to Aurelius Epaphroditus, her husband, by 
Antonia Valeria." But perhaps the most extraordinary remains of antique art is the 
mosaic work, which has no known parallel. This is an alto-relievo of mosaic, thir- 
teen feet high and sixteen wide ! It represents Hercules resting one arm on the 
stump of a tree, on which is thrown the lion's skin, his hair adorned with a golden 
bandeau ; behind him rises the branch of a tree with golden fruit, around which is 
twined a large serpent. The eyes of Hercules are fixed upon a female figure oppo- 
site, one of the daughters of the Hesperides, who is holding a branch with three 
golden apples, and who is also gazing upon him with deep interest. The design is 
simple, excellent, and noble ; and the colors, the proportions, and the attitudes, show 
the workmanship to be equal to the design. The small square pieces of mosaic are 
pressed nearly close together into a white mass, and are disposed with so much art, 
that the white interstices have the appearance of a close net-work covering the en- 
tire composition. The other sculptures to which our notice must be confined are — 
a round marble altar of Bacchus, adorned with spirited bas-reliefs, and bearing an 
urn with a relief of Apollo and two other figures, one of them a genus bringing an 
offering to the god ; a bas-relief of Jupiter enthroned, with the eagle on the left 
hand, and before him a naked youth preparing an offering, who is placing his hands 
in a vessel supported on a stand of simple but elegant form ; a large sarcophagus 
representing" three events in the life of Meleager ; Cupid bending his bow, an exquis- 
itely beautiful piece of sculpture ; a gigantic sarcophagus representing the death of 
Niobe's family, containing no less than twenty figures ; colossal statues of Bacchus 
and the Roman god Vertumnus, the latter dipensing from a cornucopia grapes, fruit, 
and corn ; and lastly, an urn bearing in slight relief the figure of a female mourner 
of the most exquisite beauty. 

The paintings are hung in different apartments of a noble suite of rooms well cal- 
culated to display them to advantage, and include the works of many of those great 
masters whose names illumine the pages of the history of art. An antique 
painting of the divinities Minerva, Hercules, Diana, Apollo, Ceres, Vertumnus, and 
Juno, is remarkable for its bold style. " Judith with the head of Holofernes, and 
her maid," is a carefully-executed picture, by Andrea Mantegna. The attitude and 
features of Judith are gracefully noble. There are two elegant, highly-finished, 
small, whole-length portraits of Francis II. and Charles IX. of France, by Zucchero ; 
and a spirited waterfall, by Salvator Rosa. 

The most valuable part of the collection is that which includes the pictures of the 
Dutch and German schools, among which are various great works, particularly by 
Rubens, Holbein, and Vandyck. The Assumption of the Virgin, who is surrounded 
by cherubim, and borne upward by angels, is a rich but small picture, by Rubens, 
who afterward painted the same design, on a large scale, for a church at Antwerp. 
There is also a fine Landscape at Sunset, by the same painter ; and a copy of one of 
his works, in which Christ and John are introduced as children with a lamb. There 
is a masterly portrait of the father of Sir Thomas More, by Holbein ; and a very 
celebrated painting, by Vandyck, of Philip, earl of Pembroke, and his family. This 
is the largest of all Vandyck's works, measuring no less than eleven feet in height 
by nineteen in breadth, and includes many figures. It has been injured by fire, and 
by the attempt to restore it. There is also a great number of otner pictures by men 



MANSIONS. 



249 




250 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

more or less distinguished, which amply merit a less summary and more individu, 
alized notice than this hasty allusion. 

At Wilton Sir Philip Sydney wrote his " Arcadia," and a still greater poet, Mas- 
singer, first saw the light. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

MANUFACTURING TOWNS. 

A large part of the population of England is collected in cities and towns ol 
considerable size. Some of these may be classed under the separate heads ol 
manufacturing and commercial towns, while others are either university towns, naval 
stations, cathedral towns, or towns for summer recreation or the residence of persons 
in independent circumstances. The cities and towns of England are of great num- 
ber, and, though often of plain exterior, include an immense amount of wealth. The 
prevalence of brick in domestic buildings, and of the smoke arising from coal fires, 
gives a peculiar character to English towns. In all, however, there are numerous 
churches and other public edifices, and in some there are many streets built of stone. 

For an account ©f the capital of England, which unites the manufacturing, com- 
mercial, educational, and leisurely characters in one, we must refer to a future page. 

At the head of the manufacturing towns stands Manchester, the chief seat of the cot- 
ton manufacture of England. This town is situated on the river Irwell, in the south- 
east district of Lancashire, at the distance of 182 miles from London. Inclusive of 
Salford, a separate municipality on the other side of the Irwell, and also compre- 
hending a few connected villages, Manchester contained in 1831 a population of 
279,398, now probably increased to 350,000. The ground on which it stands is a 
perfect level, and, from whatever side it is approached, its crowd of spires, towers, 
manufactories, and warehouses, appears mingling with the smoke that hangs over it. 
The older part of the town clusters round the collegiate church, an elegant and spa- 
cious structure of the time of Henry VII., or extends in the ancient street called Deans- 
gate. The busiest commercial street is Market street, and the most elegant is Mosley 
street. The town contains most of the usual public buildings to be found in one of 
its size — a town-hall, infirmary, prison, exchange, &c, besides several institutions of a 
literary and scientific character ; and several of these buildings, particularly the first 
two, are of remarkable elegance. A hotanic garden, about a mile from the outskirts 
of the town, is a great ornament, and forms a delightful as well as instructive place 
of recreation. There is also a zoological garden. 

The factories of Manchester exceed a hundred and twenty in number : they employ 
between thirty and forty thousand persons, and steam enginery equal in power to five 
thousand horses. About four fifths of the cotton manufacture of the kingdom centres 
in Lancashire, and of this a large proportion is confined to Manchester. The wool- 
len, linen, and silk trade, particularly the last, and many smaller manufactures, as 
of hats, pins, umbrellas, &c, are also carried on to a large extent in this town. It 
may be added, that the making of machinery has of late years become a thriving 
trade in Manchester. 

Manchester is connected with its port Liverpool by a railway, and, by means of 
the Irwell and numerous canals, it transports and receives goods to and from other 
parts of the kingdom. 

The above may be considered as an outline of this great seat of manufacturing 
and commercial industry. Fully to describe the bustle of wagons and human beings 
on its streets, to detail the vast mercantile transactions in which it is engaged, or 
describe its numerous factories and workshops of various kinds, would require a 
separate volume. In the ways of details, we can only afford room for a description 
of two or three working establishments, which we find in a neat local volume, entitled 
Manchester as it is : — 

Many of the mills are immense buildings, raised to the height of six, seven, and 



MANUFACTURING TOWNS. 251 

eight stories, erected at an expense of many thousand pounds, and filled with 
machinery costing as many more. The capital sunk in a single mill will sometimes 
be fifty thousand pounds, and frequently is as much as one hundred thousand pounds. 
Some of the mills contain nearly two thousand hands. A visit to one of the largest 
mills, if an introduction can be procured, is a gratifying treat. The rooms are kept 
in the most perfect state of cleanliness, and the strictest order and regularity prevail. 
Every operation is performed by rule, and the subdivision of labor is carried out in 
the most minute manner. The mills and factories are of various sorts, namely, 
cotton spinning-mills, silk spinning-mills, woollen spinning-mills and factories, small 
ware factories, and power-loom weaving factories. 

Among the cotton mills, one of extraordinary extent, belonging to Messrs Birley 
& Co., is situated in the suburb called Chorlton-upon-Medlock. It consists of a 
group of buildings, upon which, including machinery, several hundred thousand 
pounds have been sunk. The number of hands employed by this firm is one thou- 
sand six hundred, whose wages annually amount to the sum of forty thousand 
pounds. The amount of moving power is equivalent to the labor of three hundred 
and ninety-seven horses. The number of spindles in the mills is about eighty thou- 
sand. The annual consumption of raw cotton is about four millions pounds weight ' 
The annual consumption of coal is eight thousand tons. It will perhaps excite 
surprise in a person jjnacquain ted with the nature of machinery, when informed that 
the annual consumption of oil, for the purpose of oiling the machinery, is about five 
thousand gallons ; and the consumption of tallow, for the same purpose, five thousand 
pounds. The annual cost of gas is six hundred pounds. One room alone, belonging 
to this firm, contains upward of six hundred power-looms. Besides the hands en- 
gaged in the cotton department, the following description of mechanics are employed 
in this mill : millwrights, mechanics, joiners, bricklayers, plumbers, painters, mould- 
ers, turners, and smiths. 

The establishment in which the fabric is manufactured for waterproof clothing, 
such as " Mackintosh Cloaks,'''' belongs to Messrs Birley & Co., and is a part of their 
concern. The number of hands employed in this business varies from two hundred 
to six hundred. The immense amount of two hundred fifty thousand pounds weight 
of India-rubber is annually consumed in the process of manufacture, to dissolve 
which one hundred thousand gallons of spirits are employed. 

In the establishments called small-ware mills, of which there are several in Man- 
chester, the articles of cotton, worsted, and silk tapes, are very extensively manu- 
factured. To trace the various processes a piece of tape passes through, and the 
various employments it affords, before it comes into the market, is a very curious and 
interesting occupation. Beginning, then, with the first commercial operations. The 
cotton used in the manufacture of tapes, having been warehoused in Liverpool, is 
sold on account of the importer, and brought to the order of the manufacturer by 
cotton-brokers. It is conveyed by canal or railway to Manchester ; and when de- 
livered at the works of the purchaser, is weighed, assorted, mixed, and spread, with 
a view to obtain equality in the staple. It is then taken to the willowing-machine 
to be opened and rendered flocculent ; thence it is transferred to the blowing-machine, 
which cleanses it from dust and makes it feathery. Attached to the blower is a 
lapping apparatus, by which the cotton is taken up and laid in a continuous fleece 
upon a roller, in order that it may be conveniently carried to the carding-engine, 
there to be made into a fleece of the most equable texture possible ; thence it is 
handed to the drawing-frame, where it is blended with the production of all the 
carding-engines connected with the particular set or system to which it belongs. It 
is next passed through the slubbing-frame, afterward through the jack or roving- 
frame, and then through the throstle or spinning-frame, upon which it is made into 
yarn or twist. From the throstle, the yarn, if intended for warp, is forwarded to the 
winding-frame, but if intended for weft, to the reeler ; afterward, that which is 
wound is delivered to the warper, that which is reeled, to the pin-winder. The 
weaver next operates upon it, passes it through the loom, rubs up the tape, and con- 
signs it to the taker-in, who examines the fabric, and transfers it to the putter-out, 
who sends it to the bleacher. When bleached, it is handed to the scraper, whose 
business it is to take out the creases, and open the tape, by running it under and over 
iron -scrapers. This having been done, the piece is put through the calender, when 
it is pressed between hot bowls and rendered smooth and glossy. It is next taken 
to the lapping department, where it is neatly folded by young women, after which 



252 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

the maker-up forms the pieces into parcels, containing the required quantity, and 
places them in a powerful press to make them compact. He next papers them, and 
sends them to the warehouse for sale. 

Some idea of the extent to which this manufacture is carried on in Manchester, 
may be formed from the fact, that, at the works of Messrs. Wood and Westheads, 
upward of one million two and forty thousand yards of good, not exceeding three 
inches in width, and composed partly or entirely of cotton, linen, silk, or worsted, 
are woven in one week, or upward of thirty-five thousand two hundred and twenty- 
seven miles in one year. 

One of the principal establishments in the department of steam-engine making 
and engineering, is that belonging to William Fairbairn, Esq., situate in Canal street, 
Great Ancoats street. To persons unacquainted with the nature of working in iron, 
an admission into these works affords perhaps the most gratifying spectacle which 
the town can present of its manufactures in this metal. Consequently, almost every 
person of distinction visiting the town contrives to procure an introduction to the 
proprietor before leaving it. In this establishment the heaviest description of ma- 
chinery is manufactured, including steam-engines, water-wheels, locomotive-engines, 
and mill-gearing. There are from five hundred to six hundred hands employed 
in the various departments ; and a walk through the extensive premises, in which 
this great number of men are busily at work, affords a specimen, °f industry, and an 
example of practical science, which can scarcely be surpassed. In every direction 
of the works the utmost system prevails, and each mechanic appears to have his 
peculiar description of work assigned, with the utmost economical subdivision of 
labor. All is activity, yet without confusion. Smiths, strikers, moulders, mill- 
wrights, mechanics, boiler-makers, pattern-makers, appear to attend to their respec- 
tive employments with as much regularity as the working of the machinery they 
assist to construct. 

In one department mechanics are employed in building those mighty machines 
which have augmented so immensely the manufacturing interests of Great Britain, 
namely, steam-engines. All sizes and dimensions are frequently under hand, from 
the diminutive size of eight-horse power to the enormous magnitude of four-hun- 
dred-horse power. One of this latter size contains the vast amount of two hundred 
tons or upward of metal, and is worth, in round numbers, from five thousand to six 
thousand pounds. 

The process of casting metal is conducted here on a very large scale. Castings of 
twelve tons weight are by no means uncommon : the beam of a three-hundred-horse 
power steam-engine weighs that amount. Fly-wheels for engines, and water-wheels, 
though not cast entire, are immense specimens of heavy castings. A fly-wheel for 
an engine of one-hundred-horse power measures in diameter twenty-six feet, and 
weighs about thirty-five tons. In this establishment some of the largest water-wheels 
ever manufactured, and the heaviest mill-gearing, have been constructed — one water- 
wheel, for instance, measuring sixty-two feet in diameter. The average weekly con- 
sumption of metal in these works, in the process of manufacturing, owing to the 
quantity of wrought iron used, and the immense bulk of the castings, is sixty tons or 
upward, or three thousand one hundred and twenty tons annually. 

This extensive concern forwards its manufactures to all parts of the world. The 
stranger is told, on inquiry, that this article is for Calcutta, that for the West Indies; 
this for St. Petersburg, that for New South Wales ; and there are, besides, men be- 
longing to it, located in various parts of Europe, who are employed, under the direc- 
tion of Mr. Fairbairn, in superintending the erection of work manufactured on these 
premises. 

'Leeds, the chief town for the manufacture of cloths, is situated in the West Riding 
of Yorkshire, on a slope gently rising from the river Aire, at a distance of one hundred 
and eighty-nine miles from London. It contains a few streets of handsome houses, 
but, as in many other English manufacturing towns, utility appears to be more in 
contemplation than ornament or elegance. The population in 1831 was 123,393. 
There are some goodly public structures, as a court-house, commercial buildings, 
theatre, &c, and the town enjoys the benefits of a literary and philosophical society, 
an institution for the promotion of the fine arts, and several public libraries. 

Leeds is the centre of a large district devoted to the making of mixed and white 
cloths. Cloths of light fabric, and blankets, and carpets, are also made here in con- 
eiderable quantity; but the mixed and white cloths form the staple of the business 



MANUFACTURING TOWNS. 



253 




S54 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

of the district. The mode in which these are sold in Leeds gives occasion for toe 
existence of two public buildings of a most peculiar nature. They are called re- 
spectively the Mixed Cloth Hall and the White Cloth Hall. A description of the 
former, from a popular work, will convey an idea of both : " The Mixed Cloth Hall 
Was erected in 17o8, at the general expense of the merchants. It is a quadrangular 
edifice, surrounding a large open area, from which it receives the light abundantly, 
by a great number of lofty windows ; it is one hundred and twenty-eight yards in 
length and sixty-six in breadth, divided in the interior into six departments, or cov- 
ered streets, each including two rows of stands, amounting in number to eighteen 
hundred, held as freehold property by various manufacturers, every stand being 
marked with the name of the proprietor. This hall is exclusively appropriated to 
the use of persons who have served regular apprenticeship to the trade or mystery 
of making colored cloths. The markets are held on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and 
only for an hour and a half each day, at which period alone sales can take place. 
The market-bell rings at six o'clock in the morning in summer, and at seven in win- 
ter, when the markets are speedily filled, the benches covered with cloth, and the 
proprietors respectively take their stands: the bell ceasing, the buyers enter, and 
proceed with secresy, silence, and expedition, to bargain for the cloth they may re- 
quire ; and business is thus summarily transacted, often involving an exchange of 
property to a vast amount. When the time for selling is terminated, the bell again 
rings, and any merchant staying in the hall after it has ceased becomes liable to a 
penalty. The hall is under the management of fifteen trustees, who hold their meet- 
ings in an octagonal building, erected near the entrance to this hall." 

Huddersfield, Wakefield, Saddleworth, Halifax, and Bradford, all in Yorkshire, 
and Rochdale, in Lancashire, are other towns noted for their concern in the cloth 
manufacture, but of inferior population, and not distinguished by any remarkable 
features. Axminster, Kidderminster, Ashton, and Wilton, are the chief seats of the 
carpet manufacture. Bradford, in Wiltshire, is distinguished for superfine cloths. 

Birmingham, the chief town in the kingdom engaged in metallic manufactures, is 
situated in Warwickshire, at the distance of one hundred and nine miles from Lon- 
don. The lower part of the town consists chiefly of old buildings, is crowded with 
workshops and warehouses, and is inhabited principally by manufacturers ; but the 
upper part has a superior appearance, consisting of new and regular streets, and con- 
taining a number of elegant buildings. 

The population of Birmingham in 1831 was 146,986, being all, except a small 
fraction, engaged in trade and manufactures. 

Among the principal manufactures are buttons, in immense variety, buckles, cloak- 
pins, and snuff-boxes; toys, trinkets, and jewelry ; polished steel watch-chains, cork- 
screws, &c. ; plated goods for the dining and tea table, now in the way of being 
superseded by similar goods of mixed metal ; japanned and enamelled articles; 
brass work of every description ; swords and firearms ; medals and coins of various 
kinds ; copying machines and pneumatic apparatus ; grates, fireirons, gas-light burn- 
ers, na'ls, and steel pens. Besides almost every metallic article which can be con- 
sidered as curious, useful, or ornamental, cut crystal is produced to a large extent, 
while certain branches of the cotton trade connected with hardware, as the making 
of the cloth for umbrellas, braces, girths, &c, have also fixed themselves here, in 
order to facilitate the preparation of those articles. 

The operations of the Birmingham manufacturers are carried on chiefly by means 
of founderies, rolling-mills, die-stamping machines, and turning-lathes. From the 
founderies proceed all heavy iron goods, and even a considerable quantity of small 
wares, though the work required in trimming these articles after they leave the sand 
causes a constant tendency toward the use of the die-stamp in preference. By the 
latter machine, not only are buttons and other small articles produced, but likewise 
complicated decorative articles of many various kinds, to which it might be supposed 
that the process was inapplicable. The rolling-mill is a ponderous engine for press- 
ing out ingots of metal into sheets of requisite thinness. The lathe, a conspicuous 
machine in the workshops of Birmingham, is used for the preparation of articles of 
correctly circular, and also of oval form. It is usually driven by steam ; and in many 
instances this power is not generated in the premises of those who use it, but is ob- i 
tained for a rent from some engine kept by a different individual in the neighbor- 
hood. 

To give an idea of the extent of some branches of trade, and the activity of some ' 



MANUFACTURING TOWNS. 



25S 




256 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

kinds of machinery, at Birmingham, it may he slated that, at the pin-works, some 
years ago, twelve thousand pins could be cut and pointed, and fifty thousand pin- 
heads made from the wire, in an hour ; that there is a coining-mill, which produces 
between thirty and forty thousand pieces of coin in the same time ; and that, from 
1805 to 1818, five millions stands of arms were made for public and private service. 
The making of steel pens, which, before 1821, was scarcely known, is now a great 
manufacture. Probably not less than ten millions are made annually. There is one 
individual in the trade who employs two hundred and fifty persons, and consumes 
every year upward of forty tons of metal. The article was originally sold at the rate 
of one shilling each pen, and now, from improvements and facilities in the manufac- 
ture, one hundred and forty-four are sold at the same money. 

The history of Birmingham is somewhat sullied by outrages perpetrated by a mob. 
The 14th of July, 1791, being the second anniversary of the taking of that old 
fortress of despotism, the French bastile, was fixed upon by one of the parties into 
which the town was divided, as a day of rejoicing, and it was determined to cele- 
brate it by a public dinner. The other party also resolved upon a counter display, 
and they, with very different sentiments, also resolved to get up a public dinner on 
the same day. A number of persons congregated during the evening around the 
headquarters of each party ; rumors circulated among them, which they were too 
unenlighted to see the foljy of, and they made an attack upon the house in which the 
party friendly to the French revolution were assembled. The windows were soon 
demolished, and the rooms were searched by the rabble, who entered in the hope of 
laying hold of Dr. Priestley ; but he had not attended the dinner. The multitude 
then proceeded to the chapel in which he was accustomed to officiate, and in half an 
hour it was in flames. Afterward they set out for Dr. Priestley's residence, which 
was about a mile out of the town ; they gutted it of the furniture, books, philosoph- 
ical instruments, and manuscripts, on which he had spent some of the most valuable 
portion of his life. 

On the following day (Friday, July 15th), a number of the respectable inhabit- 
ants assembled in St. Philip's churchyard, to be sworn in as special constables ; but 
they were but imperfectly organized, and the civil authorities did not display suffi- 
cient energy for the occasion. The mob, therefore, recommenced jhe work of de- 
struction, but were at one time dispersed by the special constables. They, however, 
rallied again, and in a second attempt to disperse them, one of the special constables 
was killed. No military force being present, the mob went on to exercise their mis- 
chievous power uncontrolled. About 10,000 of them proceeded to the house of Mr. 
Ryland, at Easy hill, and the premises were soon in flames. The wine-cellar was 
broken open, and many of the besotted rabble became intoxicated with its contents, 
and were in it when the roof and heated ruins fell to the ground. This day the 
places in which persons were confined for crime were broken open, and the inmates 
liberated. Barrels of ale were broached in the street, before the houses of respecta- 
ble persons who wished to propitiate the favor of the capricious body into whose 
hands the town had fallen. Mr. Hutton was one of those who had placed a barrel 
of ale before his house to regale the mob. When it had been emptied, they pro- 
ceeded to drag him out of the house, and compelled him to give them money, and 
not content with his compliance, they confined him in a public-house until they har 1 
drunk three hundred and twenty-nine gallons of ale at his expense, and afterward 
exhibited their good faith toward him by destroying everything in his house to the 
minutest article. The rioters closed their proceedings this day by the destruction of 
Bordesley hall, the residence of John Taylor, Esq. 

On Saturday, the work of havoc was resumed. The house of Mr. Hutton, at Ben- 
nett's hill, and that of Mr. Humphries, were first destroyed. At the latter place it 
was determined to make some defence, but the idea occasioned so much alarm 
among the female part of Mr. Humphries' family, that it was abandoned. As the 
family made their escape from the house, the mob entered it, and the work of de- 
struction was speedily completed. At the house of Mr. W. Russell, at Showell 
Green, another attempt was made to withstand the mob, but without success. Du- 
ring the day, the houses of Mr. Hawkes, Lady Carhampton, Mr. Hobson, Mr. 
Bidarck, Mr. Harwood, and Mr. Coates, were destroyed. 

On Sunday morning the work of mischief was resumed by an attack on the house 
and chapel of Mr. Cox, at Wharstock. The contents of the cellar were first drunk, 
and the house and premises were then set on fire, the mob waiting to see that the 



MANUFACTURING TOWNS. 



257 







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258 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

ruin was complete ; after which they disposed of the meeting-house and parsonage- 
house of Kingswood in a similar manner. They then proceeded to Edgbaston hall, 
where they displayed their usual fury. At ten o'clock in the evening, three troops of 
cavalry had arrived at Birmingham, and on this intelligence being communicated to 
the rioters, they discontinued their lawless operations. They did not, however, at 
once disperse, but forming themselves into small bodies, levied contributions on ham- 
lets and farmhouses, until finally the country-people collected together in their own 
defence and dispersed the ruffians. 

It is quite immaterial under what watchword a body of men carry on a series of 
outrages on the persons and property of their fellow-citizens. The folly and wick- 
edness of such acts can in no way be diminished or rendered less conspicuous 
thereby. Forty-five years ago the Birmingham rioters plundered their fellow-towns- 
men in the name of " church and king ;" and five years ago the city of Bristol was 
in the hands of a mob equally ignorant and foolish, whose rallying-cry was exactly 
the reverse of that of the Birmingham rioters of 1791. In both cases the lament- 
able proceedings which took place were the results of ignorance of the most fatal 
description. 

All men have so strong an interest in the security of property, that its possessors 
will never be long in aiding each other when it is forcibly attacked. However sur- 
prise or want of energy may paralyse them for the moment, a community whose 
best interests are in jeopardy soon assumes a defensive position. The shameful per- 
petrators of violence then find that their own interests have suffered not less severely 
than those of their injured neighbors, although in a less direct manner. During the 
riots at Birmingham, three of the persons who sustained the greatest damage to their 
property employed in their several concerns many hundred persons, who would be 
thrown out of employment by the derangement which such events occasion in man- 
ufacturing and commercial establishments. After a considerable interval, all those 
whose property had been injured by the rioters, recovered damages from the county 
to the extent of 26,961/. 

Dr. Priestley, whom the rioters thought to have seized when they first commenced 
their proceedings, fortunately made his escape from his house with his wife and 
family. Before quitting his residence the fires were put out, in the hope that the 
mob, not finding immediate facilities for destroying the house, might be induced to 
relinquish the idea. This precaution, however, had not the desired effect, and the 
laborious task of hewing and tearing the house to pieces was quickly begun. Dr. 
Priestley first retreated to Worcester, and afterward to London, where he was ap- 
pointed to succeed Dr. Price, as the pastor of a congregation at Hackney. He finally 
quitted his native land in 1794, for America, where he purchased 200,000 acres of 
land on the banks of the Susquehannah, about 120 miles from Philadelphia. Here 
he spent the remainder of his days in retirement, not undisturbed by domestic suf- 
ferings. In 1796 his wife died of a fever, and his second son was shortly afterward 
cut off by the same malady. Dr. Priestley died February 6th, 1804, in the 71st year 
of his age. A tablet of white marble, with a suitable inscription, was erected to his 
memory at Birmingham, by the congregation over which he had presided. 

Among the public buildings of Birmingham, the town-hall calls for particular no- 
tice, being a magnificent structure of the Corinthian order, in the proportions of the 
temple of Jupiter Stator at Rome. Our engraving exhibits an accurate view of the 
elevation. The large proportions of the hall, its commanding height, and its splendid 
series of Corinthian columns which run completely round upon a rustic arcade, render 
t not only the most imposing building in Birmingham, but one with which very few 
nodern erections can compete. 

The internal arrangement of this building exhibits a large saloon or hall, one 
hundred and forty feet in length, sixty-five wide, clear of the walls, and sixty-five 
feet high from floor to ceiling, with corridors of communication running along on 
each side of it on its own level, and staircases leading to upper corridors to give 
access to galleries. The corridors are low, the two tiers being within the height of 
the basement externally. As the hall is intended principally for musical entertain- 
ments, one end of it is occupied by a magnificent organ and surrounding orchestral 
arrangements. This organ is of enormous dimensions, and has cost £3,000. Two 
narrow galleries run along the sides of the hall, and a large deep gallery occupies 
the other end ; rooms for the accommodation of the performers who may be employed, 
are formed at the upper end of the building and under the orchestra. 



MANUFACTURING TOWNS. 



259 




260 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

The building is lengthened externally to one h indred and sixty feet, by the pro- 
jection of the arcaded pavement in front to Paradise street, over the causeway. The 
height of the basement above the causeway is twenty-three feet— the columns resting 
upon its upper surface or platform are, with their entablature, forty-five feet, and the 
pediment forming the frontispiece is fifteen feet high— making a total height of eighty- 
three feet from the causeway to the acroterium. The columnar ordinance employed 
is in imitation of the Roman foliated or Corinthian example of the temple of Jupiter 
Stator ; the columns are fluted, and the .entablature is greatly enriched, though not 
to the full and elaborate extent of the original. The structure is of brick, faced 
with Ano-lesea marble, of which latter material the columns and their accessories 
are composed. The bricks were made on the spot of the earth taken out of the 
foundation. The stones were cut and worked by machinery with steam power, the 
Amines were made by the same means, and by the application of an invention, it is 
understood, of one of the contractors. Another ingenious invention, consisting of a 
species of craning lever-beam on rollers, was applied for the purpose of hoisting the 
framed tie-beams and principals of the roof from the ground up to the walls. The 
time civen for the completion of the edifice was eighteen months, and the total cost 
was to be £18,000, though it is understood that the marble used in it has been sup- 
plied by the proprietor of the quarries free of cost, for the purpose of bringing the 
article into public repute. 

Birmingham does not possess any buildings remarkable for their antiquity. The 
church of St. Martin, which stands at the edge of the town, on the London side, is 
doubtless the most ancient building in the town, though no precise date can be fixed 
to the period of its erection. The spire is finely proportioned, but both the tower 
from which it springs, as well as the body of the church, were encased in brickwork 
in 1690, and are therefore more remarkable for their singular appearance than any- 
thing else. The spire, however, was not thus disfigured, but was taken down in 
1783 to the extent of forty feet, and rebuilt to its original state with a durable stone 
from the neighborhood of Nuneaton. In the interior of the spire there is an iron 
shaft 105 feet in length, which is secured to the masonry by iron braces, at intervals 
of ten feet. The tower contains twelve musical bells. The attempts to "beautify" 
this church do not appear to have been well managed, as the principal monumental 
memorials of the ancient lords of Birmingham were destroyed when the exterior of 
the ed'fice was repaired. The successive erection of galleries, to provide sittings 
for the increasing inhabitants, occasioned alterations to be made, which have caused 
them to be still further mutilated or removed. 

The increase of the town occasioned the erection of another church (St. Philip's) 
in 1715, and this was surrounded by a cemetery of four acres in extent. The church 
of St. Philip ii of the Corinthian order, and is placed on the summit of a hill, and 
the dome and cupola with which it is surmounted are therefore conspicuous objects. 
The triennial musical festivals for the support of the Birmingham general hospital, 
were held there from their commencement in 1778 to 1829. 

St. John's chapel, Deritend, on the south side of the Rea, was erected in 1735, 
and the tower, in which are eight bells, twenty-seven years afterward. St. Barthol- 
omew's chapel, on the east side of the town, was built in 1749, and St. Mary's in 
1774. St. Paul's was erected in 1779, from a design by Godwin ; the steeple was 
not completed until 1823. St. James's chapel, Ashted, was consecrated in 1810. 
Christ church was begun in 1805, but was not completed till 1816 ; it contains an 
excellent organ. St. George's, erected in 1822, is a Gothic edifice, with a lofty tower 
in the style of Edward III. The dimensions of the interior are ninety-eight feet by 
sixty, and it possesses accommodations for nearly 2,000 persons. The internal deco- 
rations and arrangements are executed on a superior scale. The height of the tower 
to the top of the pinnacles is 114 feet. Trinity chapel, in the hamlet of Bordesley, 
is likewise from a Gothic design. A representation of Christ at the pool of Bethesda 
adorns the altar. St. Peter's chapel, Dale-end, is in the Grecian style of architec- 
ture; it was finished in 1827, but the interior was destroyed by fire in 1831. St. 
Thomas's, also in the Grecian style, stands on an eminence called Holloway Head, 
and was consecrated in 1829 ; the height of the tower is 130 feet. The dimensions 
of the interior are 130 feet by 60. The ceiling is enriched with highly-ornamental 
panels, and is thirty-eight feet from the floor. This church possesses accommoda- 
tion for more than 2,000 persons. All-Saints, on the road to Soho, was consecrated 
in 1833, and is a brick structure with stone pinnacles. 



MANUFACTURING TOWNS. 



261 




. , h ml 



262 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

A striking idea may be formed of the wants of society in the present day, and of 
the manner in which they contribute to stimulate industry and direct the ingenuity 
and skill of the manufacturing population into an immense variety of channels, by 
the following detailed list (taken from the population returnsof 1831) of the branches 
into which the staple trade of Birmingham is divided : — 

Makers of anvils 5; augers 1 ; awl-blades 7 ; bayonets 1 ; beer-machines 2 ; bel- 
lows 4 ; bellows-pipes 7 ; blacking 1 ; bolts 5 ; bone-toys 3 ; brace-bits 3 ; bottle- 
jacks 2 ; braces 8 ; brass cocks 1 ; braziers 7 ; bridle-bits 18 ; bridles 5 ; britannia 
teapots 51 ; bronze 1 ; buckles 10 ; burnishers 2 ; buttons 646 ; cabinet locks 3 ; can- 
dlesticks 4; casters 94; casting-pots 3; chasers 29; clock-dials 4; clock-work 2; 
coach-lace 1 ; c^ach-springs 7 ; coach-founders 5 ; coffin furniture 2 ; coral-carver 1 ; 
corkscrews 3 ; currycombs 1 ; die-sinkers 60 ; dirt-washer 1 ; dog-collars 4 ; edge- 
tools 8 ; enameller 1 ; fenders 17 ; files 55 ; filers 6 ; fire-irons 2i ; fishing-rods 1 ; 
floor-cloth 3 ; forgers 14 ; frying-pans 7 ; gas 3 ; gilders 15 ; gilt toys 255 ; gimlets 
25; girth-springs 1; glass-blowers 16; glass 7; glass-pinchers 3; glass-boys 24; 
gold-cutler 1 ; gold-beaters 18 ; gold-plater 1 ; grinders 15 ; gauge-plates 1 ; gun- 
barrel filers 4 ; gun implements 19; gun-lock filer 1 ; hinges 19; horn-presser 1 ; 
iron-filers 4 ; iron-plate workers 6 ; key-maker 1 ; lanterns 1 ; lock-filers 3 ; lock- 
smiths 113; machines 2; malt-mills 12; mathematical instruments 16; metal-rol- 
lers 11 ; metal teapots 1 ; military ornaments 2 ; miniature-frames 1 ; modellers 7 ; 
needles 2 ; paper-trays 1 ; patent cards 1 ; patent sashes 5 ; pearl-workers 3 ; pew- 
terers 5 ; picture-frames 2; pins 9 ; pistol-finisher 1 ; planes 26 ; platers 616 ; pol- 
ishers 7 ; potash 1 ; refiners 20 ; repairer 1 ; ring-turners 4 ; rollers 3 ; ruler-makers 
55 ; saddletrees 1 ; saddlers' tools 1 ; saw-handles 2 ; saws 7 ; scale-beams 25 ; Scotch 
snuff-boxes 1 ; screws 27 ; similorer 1 ; snuffers 40 ; solder 2 ; spades 6 ; spectacles 
16 ; split-rings 5 ; spoons 67 ; spurs 2 ; stampers 94 ; steel-toys 171 ; steelyards 2 
stirrup-filers 6; strikers 2 ; sword-cutlers 8 ; tarpaulins 4 ; tea-trays 21 ; tea-urns 11 
thimbles 9 ; thread 2; tools 79 ; tortoise-shell workers 7 ; toys 13; traces 2 ; Tuta 
nia (Tutenag) teapots 6 ; varnish 2 ; vices 6 ; violins 1 ; waiters 4 ; watch-glasses 1 
watch-hands 2 ; watch-pendants 1 ; watch-pinions 2 ; watch-springs 1 ; weavers 19 
web 1 ; white-metal smith 1 ; wire-drawers 150 ; workers in copper and brass 34 
workers in iron and steel 37 ; total 3,415. At Aston: makers of anvils 1 ; awl-blade 
27; bellows 10; brass-founders 576; britannia metal 8; buckles 3; buttons 
158; carpets 1; coffin-furniture 15; edge-tools 24; fenders 38; files 33; frying- 
pans 8 ; gilt toys 16 ; gimblets 16 ; glass 132 ; hinges 34 ; latches 1 ; locksmiths 59 '; 
machines 3 ; malt-mills 6 :. needles and fish-hooks 5 ; pewterers 10 ; pins 4 ; planes 
6 ; rulers 18 ; saws 19 ; screws (wood) 27 ; snuffers 6 ; spades and shovels 1 ; spoons 
36 ; steel toys 120 ; steelyards and scale-beams 17 ; thimbles 17 ; thread 3 ; traps 
(mouse and rat) 3 ; vices 2 ; weavers 5 ; wire 87 ; total 1,555. At Edgbaston : brass- 
founders 8 ; button-makers 6 ; coach-springs 1 ; files 2 ; gimlets and braces 2 ; glass 
3 ; hackles 2 ; iron 6 ; locksmiths 4 ; platers 7 ; polishers 2 ; press-nails 1 ; rollers 
of metal 2 ; screws 1 ; spectacles 1 ; spoons 2 ; vinegar and starch-makers 3. Beside 
this specification, which produces a total of more than 5,000 men, a number not 
much less appears in the Birmingham return as handicrafts — brass-workers, gun- 
makers, jewellers, whitesmiths, glass-cutters, japanners, silversmiths and toymen. 

The number of families employed in trade, manufactures, . and handicraft, is 
19,469 ; in manufacture, or in making manufacturing machinery 5,028 ; and the fam- 
ilies of capitalists, bankers, professional, and other educated men are 2,388. Add to 
these 5,292 day-laborers employed in various ways, but not in agricultural labor ; 
966 male-servants, and 5,233 female servants; and it will be at once seen that Bir- 
mingham is well entitled, both on account of its population and industry, as well as 
its intelligence, to the designation of the Midland Metropolis. 

Sheffield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, ranks only second to Birmingham as 
a seat of metallic manufactures. It is a town of above 100,000 inhabitants, great 
part of whom are engaged in the business for which Sheffield is remarkable. The 
situation of the town, upon a swelling piece of ground near the confluence of the 
Sheaf and Don, gives it health and cleanliness, but only the newer streets and sub- 
urban villas are neat, and the town is constantly involved in the smoke arising from 
the manufactories. A music hall, postoffice, and medical hall, together with a build- 
ing called the Cutlers' Hall, in which the members of that trade meet for an annual 
banquet, are the chief public buildings boasting of any elegance of exterior. 

Sheffield was famous tn th-^ middle ages for producing knives and arrow-heads. 



MANUFACTURING TOWNS. 



263 




264 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

From such small beginnings it advanced, in the course of ages, to its present distine 
tion. An immense quantity of knives, scissors, implements of husbandry, and surgical 
and mathematical instruments, is now made in it. The manufacture of plate, and 
of goods in imitation of it, as also of carpenters' tools, printing types, haircloth, and 
many other articles, is carried on to an immense extent. The manufactures of Shef- 
field'have the peculiarity of being chiefly in the hands of men of moderate capital 
and limited business, though there are also a few houses which engross a vast quan- 
tity of the principal trade. The establishments for the grinding and polishing of 
cutlery are among the most striking objects of curiosity to a stranger ; and the show- 
room of the Messrs. Rogers, cutlers to the late king, is a splendid museum, where all 
the local manufactures may be seen, of the best quality, and in the finest order. 

Coventry, an ancient city in Warwickshire, ninety-one miles from London, is a 
great seat of the manufacture of ribands, and also of watches. Some other manufac- 
tures, carried on to a great extent in the last century, including gauzes and caliman- 
coes, have declined, leaving these alone flourishing. The population in 1831 was 
27,070, all except a small portion being engaged in trade and manufactures. 

Coventry is an ancient town of note, and contains, besides some good modern pub- 
lic buildings, an old church of remarkable beauty as a specimen of Gothic architec- 
ture, and a very curious old hall (St. Mary's hall), used for festive purposes, having 
a grotesquely-carved oak roof, and a piece of tapestry wrought in 1450, measuring 
thirty feet by ten, and containing eighty figures. The town was remarkable in early 
ages for the performance of the grotesque religious dramas called " Mysteries," and 
for the shows and pageants which took place in celebration of the visits of royal per- 
sonages. One pageant of an extraordinary character has been performed annually 
ever since the reign of Charles II. It is designed to commemorate a real or imagina- 
ry incident, which is thus related : Leofric, earl of Mercia, who possessed the prop- 
erty of the tolls and services of Coventry, exacted his dues so rigidly, that the inhab- 
itants were greatly aggrieved, and at length Godiva, his pious wife, became their 
advocate. The earl, wearied by her solicitations, promised to grant her request, if 
she would ride naked through the town at mid-day. His terms, according to the 
legend, were accepted, and the countess rode through the town with no covering but 
her flowing tresses. It is added, that she had modestly commanded every person to 
keep within doors and away from the windows, on pain of death, but that one person 
could not forbear taking a glance, and lost his life for his curiosity. The procession 
commemorative of this occurrence includes the whole of the officials of the corpora- 
tion, besides a female of easy purchase, who rides in a dress of linen closely fitted to 
her limbs and colored like them. The curious person who stole the glance is called 
" Peeping Tom," and a wooden image of him is to be seen on a house in the city. 

Derby is a borough town in Derbyshire. It is built on the western bank of the 
river Derwent, over which there is a handsome stone bridge, and the river is naviga- 
ble as far as the Trent. The derivation of the name of Derby has caused a good 
deal of controversy among antiquaries. The Saxons are said to have called it 
Northworthig, and the Danes, Deoraby ; of the former appellation not a trace re- 
mains, but of the latter sufficient is retained in the present name of the town, to 
mark its origin. It is evidently derived from correspondent words in the British 
language, and refers to the situation of Derby on the banks of the river DerwenL 
Among the few historical events of distinguished importance recorded in the annals 
of this town, may be enumerated, its alternate possession by the Danes and the 
Saxons during the destructive conflict so long maintained for supremacy between 
those nations. In the year 874 it was occupied by the forces of Halfden, a Danish 
chief; they retained possession of it until the year 918, when they were attacked by 
surprise, and completely routed by Ethelfleda, princess of the Mercians. It was, 
however, shortly after retaken by the Danes, and they were again dispossessed by 
King Edmund. That Derby about this period was a place of great importance is 
evident from Domesday book, which mentions it as a royal borough of Edward the 
Confessor's, and that it contained fourteen mills for the grinding of corn, and two 
hundred and forty-three burgesses. The annual rent then paid was twentv-four pounds 
two thirds of which belonged to the king, and the other to the earl of Mercia: tolls, 
forfeitures, and customs, were divided in the same way. 

After the subjugation of England bv William the Conqueror, Derby was bestowed 
on William Peveril, the natural son of William the Conqueror, with nearly the same 
emoluments as had been enjoyed by the Mercian earls, and many privileges were 



MANUFACTURING TOWNS. 



265 




266 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

added to increase the population of the town. Henry I. granted Derby to the earl 
of Chester, and made it a corporate town. It also obtained various privileges in 
the reigns of Henry II., Richard I., and King John. 

The plague has visited this town several times, and in the years 1592 and 1593 
many hundreds of its inhabitants fell victims. 

One of the most important events recorded in the annals of the last century, is the 
Scottish rebellion of the year 1745, when Derby became distinguished as the farthest 
place in England reached by the army of Prince Charles James Stuart, grandson of 
James II., who arrived at this town on the 4th of December. His appearance was 
not unexpected, and measures had been taken to provide for the safety of the in- 
habitants. Nearly six hundred men had been raised by a subscription of the gentle- 
men of the town and county, besides four hundred and fifty maintained at the sole 
expense of the duke of Devonshire. The day previous to the arrival of the Scottish 
army, these forces were reviewed, and went through their exercise so much to the 
o-eneral satisfaction, that the inhabitants were in high spirits, and their dread of the 
enemy's approach considerably diminished. Their terror, however, revived on hear- 
ing that the van guard of the prince's army was advancing toward Ashbourn, and 
the confusion was greatly increased by the orders given to the soldiers to leave the 
town and march for Nottingham. Distraction then appeared in every countenance, 
and several of the inhabitants having conveyed away their most valuable effects, 
departed from the town with the greatest speed. About eleven o'clock on the 4th, 
two of the van guard of the prince's army entered Derby, and proceeding directly to 
the George inn, demanded billets for nine thousand men, but being informed that the 
magistrates had left the place, they were satisfied ; they then caused the prince to be 
proclaimed king. In a short time thirty more of their companions arrived under the 
command of Lord Balmerino, and drew up in the market-place, where about three 
they were joined by the rest of the corps under Lord Elcho, these constituted the 
prince's body guard, and being composed of the flower of his army, made a very 
imposing appearance. Soon after the main body marched into the town, six or 
t i_ r lu abreast, they carried white standards with red crosses. About dusk the prince 
himself appeared. He was on foot, wearing a green bonnet laced with gold, and a 
Highland plaid and broad sword. He was attended by a large body of troops who 
c i iducted him to the residence of Lord Exeter, where he established his head- 
quarters during his stay in Derby. He was attended by the dukes of Athol and 
Perth, Lord George Murray, Lord Balmerino, Lord Pitsligo, and a great number of 
other noblemen and gentlemen. 

In the evening the chiefs of the prince's army held a council of war, when they 
determined on levying a contribution, and every person in Derby who had subscribed 
for the defence of the government, was obliged to pay a similar sum to the prince's 
army. To the honor of the prince and his army, little mischief was committed, a 
line of conduct which peculiarly distinguished these hastily-raised troops ; for had 
the conduct of the individuals which composed them been as ferocious as that which 
disgraced the victorious party after the battle of Culloden, their footsteps would have 
been marked with blood. 

On the evening of the second day was held another great council, when it was 
determined to return to the north. Early on the 6th their drums beat to arms, and 
about seven o'clock they commenced their retreat upon the Ashbourn road. The 
entire number of effective troops in the prince's army who entered this place may be 
estimated at eight thousand men. 

The town of Derby contains five parishes, each of which has a church, the principal 
of which is dedicated to All Saints, the tower was erected in the reign of Henry VIII., 
it rises one hundred eighty feet, and contains many handsome monuments. There 
are several other places of worship of various denominations, besides charitable and 
useful institutions, in which the town of Derby is peculiarly rich. A county infirma- 
ry, on a very extensive scale, was established in this town in 1810, which is justly 
considered one of the most complete institutions of the kind in Europe. The ground 
plan is a square, each side extending about one hundred feet. There are several 
large baths, which are heated by steam; and in the most laborious departments of 
the establishment, such as washing, mangling, &c, the power of the same engine 
which pumps the water is employed as a prime mover. At a short distance from 
this edifice is a depot for ordnance, which was erected in 1803, with an armory in the 
centre capable of containing fifteen thousand stand of arms ; there are also magazines 



MANUFACTURING TOWNS. 



267 




208 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

for the accommodation of twelve thousand barrels of powder. The town-house is a 
handsome building, and the market-place is three hundred feet square. 

Derby is the centre of one of the most productive and industrious districts in Eng' 
land, particularly as respects the manufacture of iron and other minerals. In the 
town and its neighborhood there are large manufactories of lace, galloons, broad 
silks, sill hosiery, china, marble, jewellery, &c. ; several extensive mills and manu- 
factories have been built within these few years, and the machinery is equal to that 
of any other part of the kingdom. The town is irregularly built, and excepting some 
new erections in the corn-market, an infirmary, and an old church, with an elegant 
and conspicuous tower, it owns no public building worthy of remark. Though placed 
in the midst of a stone district, the houses are as usual built of brick. Within the 
last few years, Derby has come prominently into notice by being on the line of the 
extended series of railways from Durham and Yorkshire to London, and the station 
here is of magnificent proportions : the distance from London, one hundred and twenty- 
six miles, is performed by railway in about seven hours. In 1840, the town received 
from Mr. Joseph Strutt the munificent gift of a pleasure ground, eleven acres in ex- 
tent, and called by him the Arboretum. It is replenished with walks, seats, and 
every way fitted up for promenading and recreation ; it is opened freely two days of 
the week to all classes, and on other days is accessible upon payment of a small fee. 
The population of Derby in 1831 amounted to 23,627. 

Carlisle, which in early times was distinguished as a bulwark against the invasions 
of the Scottish armies, and as a cathedral city, has latterly acquired some note as a 
seat of manufactures, particularly in the department of cotton-spinning, calico-print- 
ing, and the weaving of ginghams, &c. 

Carlisle is a large city in the county of Cumberland, pleasantly situated at the con- 
fluence of the rivers Eden and Calden, the former of which, five miles lower down, 
falls into the Solway frith. The name of this city appears to have been derived from 
the Saxon words caer lyell, that is, the city near the wall, from its contiguity to the 
great Roman wall, which stood within less than a quarter of a mile of it; the site of 
this monument of Roman industry is still very perceptible in the neighborhood. 

This city was a military post, possessing great strength, having a citadel and a 
castle, the latter situated so as to command the passage of the river Eden, on a slight 
eminence at the northwest extremity. The castle is still kept in repair, and contains, 
among other buildings, a magazine for gunpowder, and an excellent modern armory, 
capable of receiving ten thousand stand of arms, and generally containing about that 
number. A strong ancient keep remains, with a well of great depth, probably the 
work of the Romans. Mary, queen of Scotland, was imprisoned here in 1568 ; the 
suite of rooms in which she was confined is still shown, and the place of her prom- 
enade is still known by the name of the Ladies' Walk. The castle is said to have 
been first built in the seventh century by Egfrid, king of Northumberland ; the walls 
are ascribed to William Rufus. 

The cathedral, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is a venerable structure, partly of 
Saxon and partly of Gothic architecture, containing, on the screens in the aisles, 
some singular and ridiculous legendary paintings of St. Augustine and St. Anthony, 
with a distich in uncouth language to each. Part of the western wing was demol- 
ished in the civil wars, at which period about ninety feet of the nave was pulled 
down to erect military works, among others a guardhouse in the centre of the mar- 
ket-place ; the opening was afterward closed with a wall, and the space between 
the wall and the transept is now the parish church of St. Mary. The abbey attached 
to the cathedral was completed by Henry I., and Edward I. held a parliament in that 
part of it now called the fratry, while on his last expedition to Scotland in 1307. 

In the year 1807, an act of parliament was obtained for erecting a court-house, 
and other necessary structures, on a very extensive scale, on the site of the old 
citadel. 

A very large and handsome bridge over the Eden, nearly a quarter of a mile in 
length, built of white stone by Mr. Smirke, was finished in 1817, toward the expense 
of which parliament voted the sum of ten thousand pounds. The communication 
with Scotland and Ireland is much facilitated by the erection of this bridge. 

There is a considerable trade carried on here, occupying about two fifths of the 
inhabitants. The manufactures chiefly consist of cotton, in all its branches, woollen, 
linen, leather, hats, hardware, &c. ; there are several foundries, and also breweries, 
which produce a large quantity of malt liquor. The city has an excellent public li- 



MANUFACTURING TOWNS. 



269 




870 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

brary, which was instituted in 1768, and it has been considerably improved within 
the last few years. The mayor and other officers of the corporation are chosen 
annually. 

Carlisle is a very ancient place : there are abundant proofs that it flourished in the 
lime of the Romans, who made it one of their most important military stations. The 
castle is supposed to have been a Roman fortress ; but all its original configuration 
is lost in subsequent alterations. In the time of Oliver Cromwell the keep was con- 
verted into a battery, and guns were mounted on the roof. The city and neighbor- 
ing territory formed part of the Scottish dominions in the time of David I., who here 
conferred knighthood on Prince Henry, afterward Henry II., of England, in 1148. 
It participated in all the vicissitudes of the neighboring nations ; it was burnt inten- 
tionally by the Scots in the reign of Henry IIL, and twice by accident in that of 
Edward I, During the reign of Henry VIII. it was besieged by an army of eight 
thousand men. In 1644, it surrendered to General Lesly, commanding the parlia- 
mentary forces, and, a century afterward, was taken by the rebels in 1745, and reta- 
ken by the royal forces under the duke of Cumberland. Several of the unfortunate 
adherents of the house of Stuart were executed at Carlisle, on account of their exer- 
tions for its restoration. In the accompanying engraving we give a view of this city 
as seen from the north, with the castle and cathedral. A number of new build- 
ings are continually rising, which give evident marks of the architectural taste and 
opulence of the inhabitants. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

COMMERCIAL TOWNS. 

At the head of this class stands Liverpool, next to London the greatest port in the 
empire. It is situated in Lancashire, on the east bank of the estuary of the Mersey, 
at the distance of thirty-six miles from Manchester, and two hundred and four from 
London, The town extends for about three miles along the Mersey, and rather 
more than one mile inland, the situation enjoying a slight slope toward the river. 
On the side next the country, the town extends into numerous suburban districts, 
comprehending many villas, the residences of the more wealthy citizens. Liverpool 
in 1831 contained 165,175 inhabitants; but, inclusive of the immediate environs, and 
the persons engaged in navigation, the whole number is now believed to be not far 
From 300,000. Its rise has been surprisingly rapid. In the reign of Elizabeth it 
was only a small village ; in 1700, there were about 5,000 inhabitants ; in 1760, 
26,000 ; and in 1801, 77,653. 

Liverpool is the grand medium through which the trade of England with Ireland 
and with this country is carried on ; and a vast quantity of business is transacted by its 
merchants with the ports of the Mediterranean, East Indies, and other parts of the 
world. The leading article of import is the cotton so extensively used in the manu- 
factures of Lancashire, of which, in 1830, out of seven hundred and ninety-three 
thousand six hundred and ninety-five bales imported into England, seven hundred 
and three thousand two hundred Were brought into Liverpool. The rural produce 
of Ireland, cattle, bacon, poultry, eggs, &c, forms the import next in amount, the 
value in 1832 being about four and a half millions sterling. The duties paid at the 
customhouse of Liverpool, in 1837, were four millions three hundred and fifty-one 
thousand four hundred and ninety-six pounds, being about a fifth of those paid 
throughout the whole kingdom. In the same year, the vessels entered inward, ex- 
clusive of those concerned in the fisheries and coasting trade, were — British, 1,685? 
foreign, 985 ; in all, 2,670. Those entered outward were — British, 1,735 ; foreign, 
1,012 ; in all, 2,747. But when the fisheries and coasting trade are included, the 
number of British vessels entering Liverpool that year reaches the amazing number 
of 10,281, each being upon an average of two hundred tons. Liverpool is the great 
outlet for the goods manufactured in Lancashire and Yorkshire for sale in America. 



COMMERCIAL TOWNS. 



271 




272 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



It is stated, that one mercantile house in the American trade has in one year shipped 
and received goods to the amount of a million. In connexion with the commerce 
carried on with the United States, there is a large transit of passengers. This was 
formerly carried on by means of a periodical series of well-appointed and quick-sail- 
ing vessels, usually termed liners. There are also steam-vessels conveying passen- 
gers, daily, to and from Dublin, Glasgow, and several Welsh ports, and only a little 
less frequently to other Irish harbors, and to several ports in the southwest division 
of England. 

The town, thus so extensively concerned in that commerce from which England 
derives its chief glory, presents many external features not unworthy of its mercantile 
character. Of these the chief is the docks, a magnificent series of deep-water har- 
bors, extending along the whole front of the town. They are eleven in number, with 
an aggregate superfices of one hundred and eleven acres, and eight miles of quays I 
In the year ending June 24, 1840, the dues paid by vessels entering and leaving them 
was 197,477^. 18s. 6d. The sight of these docks, bristling with numberless masts, 
and a scene of constant bustle from loading and unloading, fills a stranger with aston- 
ishment. 

The town contains several handsome streets, the chief being Castle-street and 
Dale-street. The town hall and Exchange buildings form an elegant and impressive 
assemblage of objects, having a bronze group in the intermediate court, commemo- 
rative of the death of Lord Nelson. The customhouse is, as might be expected, a 
conspicuous edifice, but in a heavy style of architecture. The other public buildings 
— the Corn-Exchange, Lyceum, Athenaeum, Wellington Rooms, Infirmary, Medical 
Institution, &c. — are goodly structures. There are upward of twenty churches be- 




Medical Institution. Liverpool. 



longing to the establishment, many of them of much architectural beauty; a greater 
number of chapels belonging to various denominations of dissenters ; with four Roman 
Catholic chapels, a meetinghouse for quakers, and a Jews' synagogue. 

The charitable institutions are numerous and well conducted. About fifteen hun- 
dred patients are admitted annually in the infirmarv. The Blue-Coat hospital main- 
tains and educates about two hundred boys and girls. The school for the blind is 
on a most extensive scale. A handsome and spacious theatre, and a circus, are 
open during great part of the year. At the Royal Liverpool Institution, public 
lectures are given ; and attached to it is a philosophical apparatus and a museum of 
natural curiosities. A botanic garden was established in 1801, at the expense of 
about ten thousand pounds. There is also a mechanics' institution of unusual extent 
and elegance, having been erected at an expense of eleven thousand pounds. It in- 



COMMERCIAL TOWNS. 



273 




274 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

eludes schools for the young, as well as for the adolescent ; and in the amount of its 
funds, and variety of the branches of knowledge taught, the establishment may be 
described as a kind of university for the middle and working classes of Liverpool. 
Among the remarkable objects connected with the town, the ornamental cemetery 
of St. James's, formed out of an old stone quarry, is worthy of particular notice. It 
contains a statue of Mr. Huskisson, who was interred in it. 

Bristol, a. large seaport town, is situated partly in the county of Somerset and 
partly in that of Gloucester, at the junction of the rivers Avon. and Frome, and about 
ten miles from the junction of the former (which is navigable) with the Bristol 
channel. It is one of the few English towns which possess the dubiously acknowl- 
edged privilege of being counties in themselves, and it is also the cathedral city for 
the diocese of Bristol. Bristol is an ancient town, and has long enjoyed distinction 
as a seaport. Previous to the rise of Liverpool, to which it is now greatly inferior, 
it was the chief port of the west of England. It still possesses considerable trade, 
and has further of late years become the seat of some active and thriving manufac- 
tures. In 1837, three hundred eighty-six ships, of seventy-six thousand nine hundred 
and fifty-seven tons burden, entered the harbor from foreign ports, besides six hundred 
and thirty-two from Ireland : and in the same year, the customs duties collected were 
one million one hundred and fifty-three thousand one hundred and nine pounds. Sugar, 
ruin, and tea, are the chief foreign imports, while the chief exports are the native 
manufactures, and cotton, woollen, and linen goods. The chief native manufactures 
are soap, glass bottles, various metallic wares, drugs, dyes, and soda. It is honorable 
to Bristol that, as in its ancient days of supereminency as a port, it sent out the first 
English vessel across the Atlantic (that of Cabot, which discovered North America), 
so, in these days, it was the first to establish a communication by steam with this 
continent. This was done in 1838, when the Great Western performed its first voyage. 
The population of Bristol, in 1831, was 117,016. 

Bristol is a well-built town, containing many spacious streets and squares, and 
extending into several beautiful suburban villages, as Clifton, Kingsdown, and St. 
Michael's, where the residences of the wealthiest citizens are placed. The city con- 
tains many public structures of an interesting character. The cathedral is a fine old 
specimen of the Gothic architecture, and the church of St. Mary Redcliife is consid- 
ered one of the most beautiful in England. The "floating harbor," formed out of 
the ancient beds of the two rivers, and surrounded by an immense extent of quay, is 
a most impressive object : the cost of its construction was not much less than seven 
hundred thousand pounds. The guildhall, jail, Victoria rooms, commercial rooms 
and institution (which contains a library, hall for lectures, &c), are other public 
buildings of an elegant appearance. Clifton, being the site of a well-known hot 
well, contains a suite of baths and pump-rooms. 

Newcastle-on-Tyne an ancient and prosperous seat of commerce, occupies a some- 
what incommodious situation on the left or north bank of the Tyne, at the distance of 
about ten miles from the sea. It is locally in the county of Northumberland, and by 
means of a bridge across the Tyne, is connected with the populous borough of Gates- 
head, in the county of Durham. It owes the origin of its name to Robert, the eldest 
son of William the conqueror, who erected a fortress on the high bluff which here 
overhangs the river, and gave it the name of Newcastle. For ages the town was 
surrounded by strong walls, as a protection against invading Scottish armies: these, 
however, have disappeared, and in modern times the town has spread over the irreg- 
ular acclivities and upland which border the river. The old fort or castle still exists, 
also the ancient Gothic church of St. Nicholas, whose elegant turret is conspicuous 
at a considerable distance. The main cause of the increasing importance of New- 
castle is its fortunate situation in the midst of the great coal-field of Northumberland 
and Durham, the produce of which finds a ready outlet by the Tyne. The plentiful? 
ness of coal has led to the establishment of numerous manufactures, among which 
arc numbered cast and wrought iron, machinery, lead, glass, chymical productions, 
pottery, soap, and glue. The number of vessels, British and foreign, which entered 
the port in 1838, was 1,835, with a burden of 242,004 tons. The gross receipts at 
the customhouse for the same year were £379,360. The older parts of the town 
near the river exhibit a busy scene of industry ; here are crowded together ship and 
boat building yards, wharfs or vessels, iron foundries and machine manufactories, 
and all the usual works connected with a great seaport. The streets in this quartet 
are dirty and smoky, but other parts of the town are of great elegance. Since 1834, 



COMMERCIAL TOWNS. 275 

by the extraordinary energy and taste of Mr. Richard Grainger, a speculating archi- 
tect, a large portion of the town has been taken down ai'd rebuilt with handsome 
stone houses, amid which are various public buildings, including a theatre, an ex- 
change, extensive markets, &c. Newcastle must be considered the metropolis of a 
rich and populous district, including Tynemouth, North and South Shields (all at the 
mouth of the Tyne), Sunderland, Durham, and Gateshead ; and with these it is inti- 
mately connected by means of the river, railways, or otherwise. At Shields and 
Sunderland, are the great depots of shipping in the coal and other trades. Besides 
its remarkable manufacturing and commercial industry, Newcastle is distinguished 
for its philosophical and literary institutions, no other town of its kind possessing so 
many inhabitants of cultivated taste. In 1831, including the population of Gates-, 
head, which was 15,177, Newcastle and its suburbs had a population of 68,790 ; but 
at present it is estimated at 100,000. 

Hull (properly Kingston-upon-Hull) is situated at the confluence of the river Hull 
with the estuary of the Humber, in the east riding of Yorkshire, of which district it 
is the principal town. It commands an extraordinary amount of inland navigation, 
not only by means of the Trent, Ouse, Derwent, and other branches of the Humber, 
but by means of canals connecting with those streams, and penetrating to the very 
heart of England. It is the principal outlet for the manufactures of York and Lan- 
cashire toward the continent of Europe, the chief seat of the northern whale fishery, 
and one of the most important stations for steam-navigation in the island, having 
packets of that kind voyaging not only to London, Newcastle, Leith, and Aberdeen, 
besides many inland places in its own district, but to Rotterdam, Hamburgh, and 
occasionally to some of the ports in what is more particularly called the north of 
Europe. Hull was a noted port so early as the reign of Edward I. ; and in the seven- 
teenth century it was a great state depot for arms, on which account the possession 
of it in the time of the civil war became an object of much importance. The refu- 
sal of its governor, Sir John Hotham, to give it up at that time to Charles I., or even 
to admit his majesty within the gates, is a conspicuous incident in English history. 
For some years, owing to various circumstances, some branches of the port have 
experienced a decline rather than an advance ; but it is still a town of large trade. 
In 1829, 579 vessels, of 72,248 aggregate tonnage, belonged to Hull. For the accom- 
modation of the shipping there is a splendid range of docks, presenting an amount 
of quayage said to measure 60,000 square yards, and with all the suitable accommo- 
dations for storing a vast quantity of merchandise. The population of the town is 
about 50,000. 

Chester is one of the less important and less populous of the commercial towns of 
England. Such importance, however, as it possesses as. a commercial town, is en- 
hanced by its being a county town and cathedral city, and the residence of a consid- 
erable number of persons in independent circumstances. It is also remarkable for 
its antiquity and its historical associations, as well as for some local features of an 
unusual kind. It is situated within a bend of the Dee, a few miles from the point 
where that river joins an estuary branching from the Irish channel. The two prin- 
cipal streets cross each other at right angles, and the town is still surrounded by the 
massive walls which were originally designed to protect it from warlike aggression, 
but are now only useful as an agreeable promenade, from which some pleasant views 
of the surrounding country may be obtained. The streets are formed in hollows, 
dug out of rock, so that the lowest floor of each house is under the level of the 
ground behind, though looking out upon^the carriage way in front. The paths for 
passengers are not here, as is usually the case, formed in lateral lines along the 
streets, but in a piazza running along the front of what in England is called the first, 
and in Scotland more correctly the second floor of the houses. These piazzas, called 
in Chester the Rows, are accessible from the street by stairs at convenient distances. 
There are numerous shops entered from them, and they in some places still retain 
the massive wooden balustrades with which all were originally furnished, but for 
which, in other places, light iron railings have been substituted. Where the houses 
and balustrades are old, the effect is very curious and striking, and apt to awaken 
ideas of ancient usages and habits long passed away. The cathedral of Chester 
contains some curious ancient architecture. The castle is a splendid modern build- 
ing, on the site of the powerful fortress which was once of such importance as a 
check upon the Welsh ; it contains the county courthouse, jail, &c. The principal 
other buildings are the halls built by the merchants to serve as marts, of which there 



276 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




UNIVERSITY TOWNS. 277 

are three, beside the exchange. The bridge across the Dee is a remarkable object, 
being of one arch, with a span of two hundred feet. It cost 40,000/. 

Chester was an important station of the Romans, from whom it derived the cross 
form of its two principal streets, and of whom relics have from time to time been 
dug up. It retained its importance during Saxon and Norman times, and in the 
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was a flourishing city, with a large maritime 
trade. It then declined, in consequence of natural obstructions to the navigation of 
the river. From the year 1328 downward, it was remarkable for the annual per- 
formance of a peculiar class of theatrical representations, simiiar to those performed 
at Coventry, and termed Mysteries. To modern taste these would seem the most 
gross burlesque of sacred subjects; but so convinced were the clergy of those days 
of their edifying qualities, that a thousand days of pardon from the pope, and forty 
from the bishop of Chester, were granted to all who attended them. After a long 
period of declension, the trade of Chester was revived by the cutting of a new chan- 
nel for the river, whereby vessels of six hundred tons burden were enabled to come 
to the quays near the town. The commerce, with the exception of a few ships 
which visit Spain, Portugal, the Mediterranean, and the Baltic, is chiefly confined to 
Ireland, whence an immense quantity of linen, hemp, flax, skins, and provisions, is 
imported. The exports of Chester are cheese (the staple production of the county), 
lead, coal, calamine, copper-plates, and cast-iron. Ship-building is carried on to a 
considerable extent, and there are some manufactures of inferior consequence. The 
population of Chester in 1831 was 21,363. 

Southampton is an ancient but considerably modernized town, the capital of Hamp- 
shire, and, next to Portsmouth and Plymouth, may be considered the chief outport 
on the south coast. It enjoys a situation at once pleasant and convenient, in a vale 
adjoining to the bay bearing its own name. In modern times, the town has been 
greatly improved and increased by the erection of lines of handsome streets in the 
environs, the residence of a respectable and leisurely population. Among the 
attractions of the neighborhood are those of the New Forest, which almost adjoins 
the town, and a beach forming a pleasant bathing-place in summer ; few seaside 
towns are more salubrious or agreeable. With the Isle of Wight at a few miles 
distance, there is a constant communication by steamboats. The southwestern rail- 
way, which terminates near the shore of the bay, has greatly advanced the interests 
of the town, by making it a depot of traffic in connexion with the metropolis ; and 
there are now constructing, at a great cost, large wet-docks and wharves for ship- 
ping. A considerable trade is already carried on with foreign countries, and the port 
is a main point of communication between England, Guernsey, Jersey, and Havre, in 
which, and some other respects, it is a rising rival » f the neighboring town of Ports- 
mouth. The population in 1831 was 19,324. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

UNIVERSITY TOWNS. 

Oxford, the capital of the rich midland county of Oxford, is one of the most an- 
cient cities in England. The origin of its name and foundation is involved in much 
uncertainty, but it has for ages been celebrated for its university, which, in extent, 
number of colleges, wealth of endowments, and architectural beauty, stands unri- 
valled by any similar institution in Europe. This seat of learning is situated on a 
gentle eminence in a rich valley, between the rivers Cherwell and Isis, and is sur- 
rounded by highly-cultivated scenery, the prospect being bounded on the east, south, 
and west, 'by an amphitheatre of hills. From the neighboring heights the city pre- 
sents a very imposing appearance, from the number and variety of its spires, domes, 
and other public edifices; while these structures, from their magnitude and splendid 
architecture, give it, on a nearer approach, an air of great magnificence. The city, 
properly so called, which was formerly surrounded by a wall, is of an oval form, and 



278 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

about two miles in circumference. The wall had bastions 150 feet distant from each 
other, though but few traces of them now remain. The city has, however, expanded 
beyond its ancient limits, and now includes, with its suburbs, a circuit of three miles. 
Oii entering the city from the east, south, and west, the respective rivers are crossed 
by bridges. Magdalen bridge is an elegant stone building over the Cherwell. The 
bridge over the Isis, on the west, consists of three substantial arches. On the south 
is another bridge over the same river, on which, till lately, stood a lofty tower, 
termed Friar Bacon's study. 

The Hio-h-street extends westward, under different names, the whole length of the 
citv- From Carfax church it is crossed at right angles by St. Giles, the other prin- 
cipal street ; and from the High-street and St. Giles branch nearly every other street 
in the citv. The High-street of Oxford is justly considered the finest in England, 
from its length and breadth, for the number and elegance of its public buildings, and 
from its remarkable curvature, which, from continually presenting new combina- 
tions of magnificent objects to the eye, produces an uncommonly striking effect. 
From Carfax church the High-street loses its name and diminishes in width, and 
declines also in the splendor of its collegiate embellishments. St. Giles street, in 
many parts, may be said to equal the High-street both in width and architecture. 
The minor streets are less spacious, and in many of them the houses are crowded 
together. There are, however, many other handsome streets, especially among those 
of recent erection. 

Of the public buildings and institutions, the university claims the first notice, and 
we will, therefore, proceed to give a brief view of the principal colleges, many of 
which are edifices of great architectural skill and beauty. 

Queen's college is a splendid modern structure on the right hand of the High- 
street, and opposite to University college. The whole area on which it is built forms 
an oblong square of three hundred feet in length, and two hundred and twenty in 
breadth, which is divided by the chapel and hall into two spacious courts. The 
foundation-stone of the south court or quadrangle was laid on the 6th of February, 
1710, the birthday of Queen Anne, by Dr. William Lancaster, provost. It is one 
hundred and forty feet in length, by one hundred and thirty in breadth, having a lofty 
cloister, supported by square pillars on the east, west, and south sides. Over the 
west cloister are two stories, containing the apartments of the fellows, the provost's 
lodgings, and a gallery communicating with the hall and common room. In the 
east are also apartments for the different members of the society; and on the north 
are the chapel and hall. The south part presents to the street the lateral fronts of 
the east and west sides, with their pediments and statues, which are connected by a 
decorated wall, enriched with a v central gateway, or grand entrance, above whose 
arch rises an open cupola, containing the statue of Queen Caroline, the consort of 
George II. The north side is occupied by a grand Doric elevation. It consists of 
an enriched central pediment, supported by four lofty columns, with their appropriate 
entablatures, flanked by the chapel and hall, with large windows finishing in a circle, 
and pilasters between them. The whole is crowned with a balustrade and an ele- 
gant cupola, of the Ionic order. This quadrangle possesses, when viewed from the 
High-street, a general resemblance to the palace of the Luxembourg in Paris. On the 
front of this college are six figures ; the two on pediments are Jupiter and Apollo ; 
the remaining four are subjects emblematical of Mathematics, Geography, Medicine, 
and Religion. 

Hawksmoor is the nominal architect of this college ; but from its superiority to his 
other works, the design has been referred to his great master, Sir Christoplu Wren. 
The interior court, or north quadrangle, is one hundred and thirty feet in length, and 
ninety in breadth. The north, east, and south sides contain apartments for the so- 
ciety, and the library occupies the west. The entrance to it is through a passage 
between the hall and chapel. 

Very considerable sums had been given, and bequests made, toward the building 
of this college ; but, from various causes, t'hey were not found sufficient to complete 
it. To forward this object, Queen Caroline, who was herself an admirer of learning, 
gave, in the year 1733, one thousand pounds ; and the east side was chiefly built by 
the bounty of John Michel, Esq. Early in the morning of December 18, 1778, a fire 
broke out in the attic chamber in the staircase, adjoining to the provost's lodgings ; 
and in a few hours the west wing of the front quadrangle was destroyed, the shell 
only remaining. Toward the repairs of the edifice, injured by this sudden and via- 



UNIVERSITY TOWNS. 



279 




280 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

lent conflagration, Queen Charlotte was pleased to subscribe one thousand pounds. 
The society also received voluntary contributions from many distinguished persons, 
collegiate bodies, and others, toward the reconstruction of the building. The hall ia 
sixty feet long and thirty broad, with an arch of proportionate height, and decorated 
with the Doric order. The chimney-piece is of marble, on which stands a bust of 
Aristotle, generally said to be a likeness of Bonaparte. This room is furnished with 
various portraits in the windows and on the walls. 

The library of this college is a large and noble apartment, completed in 1694. It 
is about one hundred and twenty-three feet in length, and thirty in breadth. The 
bookcases are delicately carved, and the ceiling enriched with compartments in 
stucco. This fine room is ornamented with a large orrery, given by six gentlemen 
commoners, belonging to the college, in 1763 : a cast of the Florentine boar, in plas- 
ter of Paris, presented by Sir Roger Newdigate ; and two ancient portraits on glass 
of Henry V. and Cardinal Beaufort, presented to the society by Alderman Fletcher. 
The elegant entrance door is of stone, and of the Corinthian order. Over it are the 
portraits of the founder and Dr. Lancaster ; on the west side are others of Bishop 
Barlow, Potter, Langbaine, Dr. Halton, Dr. Fothergill, Edward IV., &c. At the 
north end are Queen Charlotte, Charles I., a much-admired portrait of Fuller, the 
painter, taken by himself when in a state of intoxication, and a curious portrait, sup- 
posed to be that of the member of this college who killed the wild boar in Shotover 
forest. The library contains upward of eighteen thousand volumes. 

The chapel, the interior of which is of the Corinthian order, is one hundred feet 
long and thirty broad. The windows, removed from the old chapel, were all painted 
by Van Linge in 1636, and repaired by Price in 1715, with the exception of four, 
which are supposed to have been executed three centuries ago, and which still retain 
much of their original brilliance. The foundation of this chapel was laid in 1713-'14, 
and dedicated in 1719. The ceiling is decorated with the painting of the Ascension 
by Sir James Thornhill. 

University College is remarkable for its antiquity. It is entered by a large quad- 
rangle, a hundred feet square, which presents a noble appearance. The chapel and 
hall, on the south side, have undergone considerable characteristic and judicious al- 
terations, after the designs of Dr. Griffith, a former master. These have been effected 
by lengthening the windows, by the addition of buttresses, battlements, and pinnacles, 
and by changing the former clumsy centre into an elegant Gothic bow-window and 
pediment. Above the gateway are two statues — that on the outside represents Queen 
Anne, and the other on the inner side James II. The latter was presented to the 
society by a Roman catholic, when Mr. Obadiah Walker was master. The hall was 
begun in 1640 ; but, in consequence of the unsettled state of the university during 
the usurpation of Oliver Cromwell, it was not completed till the reign-of Charles II. 
In the year 1766, its interior received considerable alterations and improvements. 
The fireplace in the centre of the room was removed, and a chimney erected on the 
south side. The roof was ceiled, the wainscot put up, a screen erected at the lower 
end, the floor newly paved, and the whole ornamented in the Gothic style. The ex- 
pense, which amounted to near twelve hundred pounds, was defrayed by the contri- 
butions of the master and fellows, and many others who had been, or were then 
members of the society. 

The library of this college is on the south side, beyond the principal quadrangle, 
and was finished in 1699. It contains many valuable manuscripts and printed books. 
The chapel was completed in 1665. The east window is of painted glass : the Na- 
tivity by Henry Giles, of York. It was the gift of Dr. Radcliffe, in 1687. The inner 
roof, which was formerly of wood, having been removed for the purpose of repairing 
the timber of the roof, has been replaced by a handsome, groined, Gothic ceiling. 
The Bcreerj is beautifully composed of the Corinthian order, with its enrichments, 
and is exquisitely carved by Grinlin Gibbons. The altar-piece is a copy of the Sal- 
vaK it Mundi of Carlo Dolce, executed by Dr. Griffith, the late master. " The carved 
work over the altar is of most beautiful workmanship. Near the altar, on the south 
side, is a monument by Flaxman, in memory of Dr. Nathan Welherell, who presided 
over this college during the long period of forty-four years. The wainscot of the 
ante-chapel has been removed, and an arch formed at the west end, to receive a 
monument to the memory of the celebrated ' s ir William Jones, formerly a fellow of 
this college. It was executed by Flaxman, and the bas-relief represents Sir William 
in the ad of translating and forming a digest of Hindoo laws from the sacred books, 



UNIVERSITY TOWNS. 



281 




282 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

or vedas, which the Bramins appear to be reading to him. This memorial was origi- 
nally designed by Lady Jones to be sent to Calcutta; but the East-India company 
having determined to erect one there at their own expense, it was presented to this 
college, and that which it was meant should be placed here by the friends of Sir 
William Jones, was transferred to the University church. Under the window in the 
ante-chapel is another fine monument, also by Flaxman, to the memory of Sir Robert 
Chambers, a member of this college, the gift of Lady Chambers. 

Merton college is entered by an embattled tower, erected in the early part of the 
fifteenth century. The subject of the ancient sculpture over the centre of the gate 
is, by some antiquaries, believed to be the history of St. John the Baptist, and a relic 
of the church dedicated to that saint. The statues under the rich Gothic canopies 
are those of King Henry III. and the founder. 

The first quadrangle is formed by the east end of the chapel, part of the hall, the 
warden's lodgings, and apartments for the members. The second quadrangle is one 
hundred and ten feet by one hundred. At the south end of it is the entrance into the 
gardens, in which is a fine terrace formed on part of the city wall, whence there is a 
view of Merton Fields and the Wide Walk of Christ church. Part of the south end 
of this quadrangle has lately been repaired, and the architectural ornaments over the 
garden gateway restored. 

The chapel of this college is particularly deserving of notice. The ante-chapel, 
for more than one hundred and fifty years, was wainscotted with very old and beauti- 
fully carved wood-work, in the Grecian and Gothic styles, taken, it is supposed, from 
the inner chapel. At each end were two large screens, which in part prevented the 
sight of the beautiful windows, and entirely hid the architecture of the north en- 
trance, and a very ancient and curious monument, erected in catholic times, at the 
south end. On removing these wainscots and screens, one of the wedges having been 
drawn from the wall, showed the lower part of a small column of stone, which in- 
duced an opinion that the same column supported an arch on each side of the grand 
west window. This conjecture proved correct, for Mr. Evans discovered, and has 
si c, with the approbation of the college, displayed to view two beautiful arches, 
sit | ported by columns, forming altogether a complete body of grand columns to sup- 
I the tower of this chapel ; and, were one other improvement to take place — were 
architect's original design restored by removing the ceiling which now forms a 
1 • I fry — it would display an ancient and well-conceived roof of superb Gothic carved 
work unequalled in this university. 

This chapel exhibits some very singular specimens of Gothic architecture. The 
north window, in the ante-chapel, contains two ranges of seven lights ; the windows 
of the choir display no common splendor of painted glass, in the representation of 
saints, martyrs, and associated decorations; but the great object of interest in this 
chapel is the eastern window, which possesses uncommon beauty, from the propor- 
tion of its parts, the fancy of its tracery, and the attractive effect of its whole design. 
It is a most exquisite specimen of fine taste, and is called the Catharine Wheel win- 
dow, one of the only three now in England. From its situation in this chaste and 
perfect Gothic chapel, it may certainly be considered as the finest in the kingdom : 
although it is said by some artists that its height is not in due proportion with its 
breadth. Its paintings, which represent the principal events of the life of Christ, in 
six compartments, were executed in the year 1700 by W. Price. 

Worcester college is situated on the banks of the Isis, at the western extremity of 
the university. On entering the college, the visiter is struck by the contrast between 
the old buildings on the west and the elegant new buildings opposite. The new 
buildings were finished in 1756. At the eastern end are the chapel, library, and hall. 
The latter is ornamented with fluted Corinthian columns ; and at the upper end is a 
fine painting of a Dutch fish-market, the fish by Snyders ; over the fireplace is a 
whole-length portrait of Sir Thomas Cookes, the founder, by Sir Godfrey Kneller: 
and in other parts of the hall are portraits of Dr. Clarke, Dr. Eaton, &c. 

Christ Church is the largest and most magnificent foundation in Oxford, and owes 
its origin to Cardinal Wolsey, who, in 1524 and 1525, obtained a bull from the pope, 
authorizing him to suppress twenty-two inferior priories and nunneries, and apply 
their revenues in support of the intended college. The original plan of this founda- 
tion provided for one hundred and sixty persons, who were to apply themselves to the 
study of the sciences at large, as well as to polite literature. The cardinal settled on 
this society a clear annual revenue of two thousand pounds, and commenced the 



UNIVERSITY TOWNS. 



283 




284 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

present building for the use of the members under the name of " Cardinal's College.' 
After his disgrace and death, the king, who had in the first instance seized its reve- 
nues and arrested its progress, was induced to patronise the institution, and re-endowed 
it for the support of a dean and twelve canons, under the name of " King Henry the 
Eighth's College." 

The hall of this college was built by "Wolsey, and strikes every eye with its mag- 
nificence, the grandeur of its proportions, and the propriety of its ornaments. It is 
unrivalled as a refectory by any room in the kingdom. In the reign of Charles I. the 
present approach was built, but the name of the architect is not known ; the vaulted 
roof is supported by a single pillar in the centre of a square, and by groins at the 
angles. The new staircase and lobby were opened in 1800. The roof of the hall is 
highly ornamented, and the large window at the upper*end of the south side is suited 
to its position, and very much admired for its fine-carved Gothic canopy. This 
6tately apartment is one hundred and fifteen feet in length, forty in breadth, and fifty 
in height, and, taking in the lobby, &c, is one hundred and eighty feet long. In 
1801, two new Gothic chimney-pieces were erected in this room by order of the dean, 
Dr. Jackson, from a plan of Mr. Wyatt. Theyare made of Somersetshire stone, and 
are considered very appropriate ornaments of the hall. 

As Christ Church has ever claimed the honor of receiving their monarchs when 
thev went to Oxford, this hall has consequently been the scene of those entertain- 
ments which have been prepared to do honor to, or promote the amusement of, the 
royal visiters. Henry VIII. in 1533, Queen Elizabeth in 1566 and 1592, James I. in 
1605, and Charles I. several times, were splendidly entertained in this room. In the 
year 1S14, George IV., then prince regent, dined here with Prince Metternich. 

Very near the hall is the kitchen, which is often visited by strangers. In it is a 
very large and curious gridiron, which is supported by four wheels. It was used for 
dressing whole joints, before ranges and spits were invented. The kitchen was the 
first part of the college that was completed, and still retains its original appearance. 

The chapel of this college, which is also the cathedral of the diocess, is the same 
which belonged to the priory of St. Frideswide, where that saint and her parents 
were entombed. It is built in the shape of a cross, with a spire in the middle. The 
tower contains ten bells, which formerly belonged to Osney Abbey. The length of 
the chapel, from east to west, is one hundred and fifty-four feet. The length of the 
transept, from north to south, is one hundred and two feet. The height of the west- 
ern part is forty-one and a half feet. The breadth of the nave and side aisles is fifiy- 
four feet; and the height of the steeple one hundred and forty-four feet. Five monu- 
ments of great antiquity are still remaining in this chapel, or more properly church. 
The first, which is under the great window in the north transept, was erected to the 
memory of James Zouch, who died in 1503. The four other tombs are between the 
respective arches, dividing the Divinity or Latin chapel from the middle north aisle. 
The first of these displays a man in armor, and is reported to belong to Sir Henry de 
Bathe, who died in 1252. The next beyond is supposed to contain the remains of 
Guymond, a prior, who died about 1149. The next monument is that of the lady 
Elizabeth Montacute, wife to William Baron Montacute, ancestor of the Montacutes, 
earls of Salisbury. She was buried here in 1353. The last of these tombs is the 
shrine of St. Frideswide. This is a neat and elegant structure erected over a tomb, 
which had on it the effigy of a man and woman in brass, now torn off, said to have 
been the parents of the saint. She died in the year 740, on October 19th, which day 
is commemorated by a fair kept before the gates of the college. The monument of 
Robert Burton, the author of the Anatomy of Melancholy, who was a member of this 
college, is in this part of the church. These monuments of a later date may be 
considered as an obituary of many of the most distinguished members of this society. 
There are also several monuments erected to the memory of eminent persons who 
died in Oxford when Charles I. held his court at Christ Church. 

Nearly all the windows of this cathedral were destroyed in 1651. Those that re- 
main, with others executed since, are — the Story of Jonah, in the south aisle ; the 
Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah ; and Christ disputing with the doctors, in the 
east window of the divinity chapel, by Van Linge. The Nativity, in the east window, 
is by Price, from a design of Sir James Thornhill. The window in the north aisle, 
representing St. Peter conducted out of prison by the angel, was painted in 1700, by 
Isaac Oliver, when he was eighty-four years of age. The centre west window has 
lately been repaired, and embellished with ancient and very curious painted glass, 



UNIVERSITY TOWNS. 285 

representing St. Frideswide, St. Catharine, and other saints. In the centre part of 
the great window in the north transept, is the representation of the murder of Becket, 
archbishop of Canterbury, which has the appearance of great antiquity. The other 
windows contain a great variety of arras, crests, devices, &c, some of them collected 
and given by the late Alderman Fletcher, a few years since. The window which 
has a portrait of Bishop King, contains a curious view of the south elevation of Osney 
Abbey. There is a fine-toned organ in the church, where service is performed every 
morning and evening, and sermons are preached in the nave, before the university — 
on Good Friday, Ascension day, Christmas day, and whenever it is the turn of the 
dean or either of the canons to preach. The church has lately been new roofed, and 
the interior has undergone many alterations and repairs. The stone roof in the choir 
is much admired. The richly grnamented sacramental plate is very ancient. The 
pulpit is also very old, and of curious workmanship. In this chapel is placed a very 
tine statute of Dr. Cyril Jackson, dean from 1783 to 1809, when he retired from his 
arduous situation : he died August 31, 1819. It is executed by Chantrey, from the 
excellent likeness in the hall, by Owen. 

The common room, which is under the hall, contains portraits of Henry VIII., 
of Drs. Busby, Freind, Nicoll, and Archbishop Markham, of Dean Aldrich, and Dr. 
Frewin ; and a bust of Dr. Busby, by Rysbrach. 

In the court, which is entered by a narrow passage, in the southern part of the 
great quadrangle, and adjoining the common room, is the grammar school, where 
the choristers and other boys are educated. Opposite the grammar school is the 
anatomical theatre, which was begun in the year 1776, and finished partly with the 
benefaction of Dr. Freind, who died in 1728, leaving one thousand pounds toward 
promoting the study of anatomy ; and partly with the legacy of Dr. M. Lee, who by 
his will endowed the lectureship, and was in other respects a great benefactor to the 
college. This is a handsome convenient building, and is well furnished with subjects, 
preserved in spirits, to illustrate the study of anatomy. 

In order to complete our account of this college, we must return into the great 
quadrangle, pass under the northeast arch, which is opposite the hall entrance, and 
proceed to the quadrangle, called Peckwater, which derives its name from an ancient 
hall or inn which stood on the southwest corner of the present court, and was the 
property of Richard Peckwater, who gave it to St. Frideswide's priory, in the reign 
of Henry III. About the middle of the reign of Henry VIII. another inn, called Vine 
Hall, was added to it ; these, with other buildings, were formed into a quadrangle, 
in the time of Dean Duppa and Dr. S. Fell, which remained until 1705, when the 
east, west, and north sides were rebuilt after a plan given by Dean Aldrich, at the ex- 
pense of the dean, canons, and nobility and gentry educated in this society. Anthony 
Radcliffe, canon, bequeathed three thousand pounds for this purpose. 

The three sides are in a chaste Ionic style ; all superfluity of ornament has been 
judiciously rejected, and it may be said to be one of the most correct examples of the 
Palladian architecture in England. 

The library, which forms the south side of Peckwater quadrangle, was begun in 
1716, after a design of Dr. George Clarke, of All Souls, and was not completed until 
1761. The elevation consists of one order of three-quarter Corinthian columns, of 
considerable height and diameter. It was originally intended that the lower story 
should consists of an open piazza of seven arches, with an ascent of three steps along 
the front of the building ; but it was afterward enclosed, and forms the rooms which 
contain some books and the collection ot paintings left to the college by Brigadier- 
General Guise, who had received a part of his education in it. 

The upper room is one hundred and forty-one feet by thirty, and thirty-seven feet 
in height. The ceiling is richly ornamented ; and the wainscot and pillars are of the 
finest Norway oak. The festoons of stucco are much admired for the delicacy of the 
workmanship. This library, in books, prints, manuscripts, and coins, is of the first 
order. The recesses in the upper room are occupied by a bust, in bronze, of Marcus 
Modius, a physician, presented to the society by Lord Frederick Campbell; and a 
female figure, in marble, attended by a smaller figure of a boy, with one hand upon 
her shoulder, given by the late A. K. Mackenzie, M. A., a student of this house. This 
fine antique statue was found at Pella in Greece. At the east end are marble busts 
of Seneca and Nero ; and at the other end, of Ceres and Cicero. On the staircase is 
a fine whole length statue of Locke, by Roubilliac. 

Canterbury quadrangle joins that of Peckwater on the east side, and is a handsome 



?86 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

entrance to the college. On this site formerly stood Canterbury Hall, which was 
granted to the college by Henry VIII. In 1775 the north and east sides of it were 
rebuilt, after a design of Mr. Wyatt, chiefly at the expense of Dr. Robinson, primate 
of Ireland, who contributed two "thousand pounds toward their completion ; by whose 
liberality the south side also was rebuilt in 1783. The chief ornament of this court 
is the magnificent gateway, erected under the direction of Mr. Wyatt, in 1778. The 
order is Doric, and the design combines all that can be expected from a union of 
solidity and elegance. Both Canterbury and Peckwater quadrangles are inhabited 
chiefly by the undergraduate members of the college. 

Magdalen college is one of the noblest institutions in Oxford. It was founded by 
William of Waynflete, bishop of Winchester, in the year 1458, for a president, forty 
fellows, thirty scholars, called demies, a divinity lecturer, four chaplains, eight clerks, 
and sixteen choristers for the service of the chapel. The members of the college still 
remain the same as at the time of the foundation, with the addition only of gentlemen 
commoners, for no commoners are admitted. The members on the books of this 
college in 1834 were one hundred and fifty-eight, of whom one hundred and fifteen 
were members of convocation. Magdalen college is bound by its statues to entertain 
the kings of England and their sons when at Oxford, whence this hall was often been 
'.he scene of royal and princely festivities. Magdalen college is situated at the east 
entrance to Oxford, and forms a noble object as the traveller crosses the bridge over 
the Cherwell. The buildings, as designed by the founder, compose two quadrangular 
courts, one of small and another of large dimensions. The entrance to the first is 
through a modern Doric portal that does not harmonize well with the rest of the 
structure. In front of the court ?s the original entrance, now disused, to the larger 
quadrangle, under a venerable Gothic tower, which is adorned with statues of the 
founder, of Henry VI., and of Stt John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalen, in canopied 
niches of exquisite workmanship. The other court is nearly as the founder left it, 
the south cloister being the only portion that has been added since his death. This 
court contains the chapel, hall, and library, with apartments for residence. Round 
the whole of this court is arranged a series of hieroglyphic figures, which have occa- 
sioned a good deal of speculation among the learned. Besides the two courts there 
is a tower, and several other ranges of buildings belonging to the college, which have 
been erected at different periods, and were not included in the founder's design. The 
tower, which attracts notice by its beautiful proportions, was finished in 1498. It is 
said to have been designed by Cardinal Wolsey, a report which seems to have 
originated in the fact that he was bursar of the college at the time : and the cardinal 
is reported to have affirmed that he owed all his greatness to its classic shades. 

Pembroke college owes it foundation to the joint munificence of Thomas Teesdale 
and Richard Wightwick ; for although in the charter, dated in 1624, James I. is 
called the founder, and the earl of Pembroke, then chancellor of the university, the 
godfather, yet it does not appear that either of these personages assisted the founda- 
tion otherwise than by their patronage. The college forms two small courts, com- 
prehending some portions of the Broadgate Hall. The principal court, which was 
erected at different periods during the seventeenth century, is uniform and simple in 
its architecture. The front, which was only completed in 1694, is an unadorned 
elevation, with a low tower over the entrance in the centre. 

New college was founded by William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, and 
lord high chancellor in the reign of Edward III., one of the most illustrious charac- 
ters of the age in which he lived. In the same year, Wykeham began his collegiate 
establishment at Winchester, which was intended, and still continues, to serve as a 
nursery to this at Oxford. The original foundation was so ample that, with some 
subsequent additions, it has become one of the wealthiest societies in Oxford. It now 
consists of a warden, seventy fellows and scholars, with priests, clerks, and choristers, 
for the service of the chapel. The fellows and scholars are annually elected from 
the college at Winchester ; the founder's kindred become fellows on their first ad- 
mission, the others are scholars on probation till the expiration of two years. In its 
original charter, this college is called the " College of St. Mary of Winchester," but 
having received the name of " New College" at the time of its erection, it has re- 
tained that appellation to the present time. 

All Soul's College was founded in the year 1437, by Henry Chicheley, archbishop 
of Canterbury, who prevailed on King Henry VI. to assume the title of co-founder. 
Wykeham's college, of which Chicheley had been a fellow, appears to have been 



UNIVERSITY TOWNS. 



287 




Magdalen Bridge, and the Tower of Magdalen College, Oxford. 



288 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

the model he kept in view in this establishment, which is called in the charter — 
"The College of the Souls of all faithful people deceased of Oxford." It was 
orio-inallv intended for a warden, forty fellows, two chaplains, and six clerks and 
choristers. There are now four bible-clerks ; but in other respects the original num- 
bers are preserved. The buildings of this college form two large quadrangles, one 
of which was erected by the founder, and although now much modernized, still re- 
tains manv of its original features. Two niches over the principal entrance contain 
laro-e statues of Henry VI. and Chicheley. The other quadrangle, which is of com- 
paratively modern erection, exhibits, especially when viewed from the west en- 
trance, one of the most attractive scenes which Oxford can boast. The style is of 
the mixed Gothic. The chapel and hall are on the south side of this court, and the 
library on the north. One of the courts is 170 feet in length by 72 in width, and the 
other 172 by 155. The library, which was begun in 1716, and completed in 1756, 
possesses one of the largest rooms appropriated to the purpose in England, it being 
198 feet in length, and thirty-two and a half in breadth. Dr. Young, the author of 
the " Ni^ht Thoughts," laid the foundation of this structure, which owes its erec- 
tion to the munificence of Colonel Codrington, who bequeathed 10,000/. for the pur- 
pose, besides leaving to the society, books then valued at 6,000/., and which are now 
worth a much larger sum. 

Without pausing to inquire into the general mode of appropriating the funds of 
the religious houses at the time of the reformation, it may be enough to state, that 
those which were applied to the endowment of educational establishments, Avere 
employed much more in accordance with the original spirit of the ecclesiastical 
foundations, than when, as was generally the case, they were given to enrich the 
rapacious followers of the licentious monarch that then reigned. A learned educa- 
tion at the time to which we are adverting, was usually possessed by the higher 
order of churchmen only, and a provision for that purpose was usually made by the 
monastic establishments, so that the new application of the funds to which we have 
alluded, was no more than the fulfilment of the original wishes of the founders. 

Trinity college was originally founded and endowed by Edward III., Richard II., 
and the priors and bishops of Durham. As it was under the patronage of the latter, 
it obtained the name of Durham college, though dedicated from the beginning to 
the Holy Trinity, St. Mary, and St. Cuthberl. Being classed with religious houses 
at the Reformation it was suppressed, and Sir Thomas Pope, having purchased the 
site and buildings, began and endowed a new foundation, in 1554, for a president, 
twelve fel'iows, and twelve scholars. To this four exhibitions have since been added, 
one for a superannuated Winchester scholar ; but, generally, the original foundation 
was so ample that few benefactors have thought the college required their assistance. 
St. John's college was founded in 1555 by Sir Thomas White, alderman and lord 
mayor of London, who appropriated part of the wealth accumulated by industry 
and success in mercantile pursuits to the establishment of this college for a president 
and fifty fellows and scholars, two chaplains, and the members of the choir. All 
the fellows, except thirteen, are elected from the Merchant Tailors' School in Lon- 
don, of which corporation Sir Thomas was a member. The members now on the 
books of this college are 218, of whom 118 are members of convocation. The 
buildings of this college have been erected at different periods: they are chiefly 
arranged in two quadrangles, one of which still retains part of the tenements of St 
Bernard's college, the site of which it occupies. In this division are the hall and 
chapel, with apartments for the president, and the fellows and the scholars. The 
principal entrance is under a square tower, adorned with a statue of St. Bernard, 
placed in a richly-canopied niche. On the east side is a passage leading to the 
other quadrangle, which was erected at the sole expense of Archbishop Laud from 
the designs of Inigo Jones. 

Wadham college is entered by a handsome gateway, with a tower rising above it. 
A hall and chapel are on the eastern side, in the centre of which, and forming the 
entrance to the hall, is a portico, enriched by the statue of King James I. in his 
robes, with the royal arms over it ; that of Nicholas Wadham, in armor, holding in 
his right hand the model of the college ; and on the left is the figure of Dorothy, 
his wife. 

The chapel is spacious and well-proportioned, with a noble ante-chapel, at right 
angles with the choir. The fine east window, which is the work of Bernard Van 
Linge, was presented to the college by Sir John Strangeways. It presents, in the 



UNIVERSITY TOWNS. 



289 




290 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

tipper compartments, the principal types in the Old Testament relating to our Sa- 
vior ; and in the lower ones, the most remarkable circumstances of his history, as 
recorded in the New Testament. In the five windows on the north side are rep- 
resentations of the Prophets, and in those of the south, of our Savior and his 
Apostles. 

Oriel college is comparatively speaking a modern structure. The quadrangle 
was finished in 1640; and in 1818 a considerable addition was made to it. The 
library was built from a design by Wyatt, and is considered one of the most perfect 
pieces of architecture in Oxford, but wants the advantage of situation. The front, 
with equal grandeur and simplicity, exhibits only the Ionic order ; all the parts 
are great and commanding, the ornaments few, and the whole harmonious. This 
library contains a good collection of books. 

Corpus Christi college is situated opposite the south side of Oriel college. The 
entrance is under a square tower, in the front of which are three unoccupied niches, 
with rich canopies. In 1706, the fellows' building was begun to be erected on the 
site of the old cloist^'3. 

The hall, which j on the east side of the quadrangle, was built during the life oi 
the founder, bu' .as since undergone many alterations. It is very neatly fitted up. 
The fine carved work is much admired. Its dimensions are fifty feet by twenty-five. 
In this refectory are placed two portraits, of the size of life, and both of them ex- 
quisitely painted by Owen ; the one, of the Right Hon. Sir Charles Abbott, lord 
chief justice of England ; and the oiher, of the Right Rev. Thomas Burgess, bishop 
of Salisbury. Both these eminent men were originally scholars upon this founda- 
tion ; and the portraits were presented to the society by each of them respectively. 

Brasen Nose college received its name from the circumstance of its, standing on 
the ground formerly occupied by Brasen Nose hall, which had a large brass knocker 
on the gate in the shape of a nose. In the centre of the large quadrangle is a cast, 
generally called "Cain and Abel," though supposed by some to be "Samson kill- 
ing a Philistine with the jaw-bone of an ass;" and by others considered as the 
study of some sculptor, whose principal object was the display of muscular strength 
and action. It was given to the college by Dr. Clarke, of All Souls, who purchased 
it from a siatuary in London. This quadrangle contains the hall and apartments 
for the society. The lesser court on the left contains the library and chapel. The 
hall is a large room, containing fine portraits of the founders, King Alfred, &c. In 
the fine bay window at the upper end, on the left, are portraits of the founders ; the 
opposite window has, within the last few years, been decorated with rich painted 
glass, and now forms an elegant ornament to this handsome room. Over the door 
toward the quadrangle are two very ancient busts of Alfred and John Scotus 
Erigena ; the former is said to have been discovered when the workmen were 
digging the foundation of the college. 

The library was rebuilt in 1780, and ornamented with a very elegant ceiling by 
Wyatt. It is a neat room, well stocked with books. At the upper end is a very 
fine bust of the Right Honorable Lord Grenville, chancellor of the university, by 
Nollekensj presented to the society by his lordship. 

Exeter college is situated nearly opposite Jesus college. Ithas a large central 
gateway, consisting of a rustic basement, from which spring four pilasters, support- 
ing a semicircular pediment crowned by a balustrade. The interior is quadrangular, 
and the garden is elegantly laid out; and, though in the central part of the city, is 
open to the east, where a terrace commands most of the principal buildings of the 
univi rsity. The library, which is most amply stored with valuable books, was 
erected in 1778, after a design of the Rev. Wm. Crowe, public orator. 

Jesus college is entered by a handsome rustic gateway. The first quadrangle is 
formed by the chapel on the north Jde, the hall on the west, and the apartments for 
the members on the south and east. The second or inner quadrangle is a handsome 
Btructure, and was finished in 1676 by Sir Leoline Jenkins. The library of this 
college was erected in 1677. It contains many scarce and curious printed books and 
manuscripts ; among the latter are those of Lord Herbert of Cherburj- ; also a fine 
one of the Llyfr Coch, or Red Book, written about the end of the fourteenth century. 
This curious manuscript contains several very ancient histories, poems, romances, 
&c, all in the Welsh language. 

Lincoln college is situated between All Saints' church and Exeter college, anc 
consists of two quadrangles. The first, the entrance to which is beneath a tower 



UNIVERSITY TOWNS. 



291 




292 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

forms a square of eighty feet : it contains the rector's lodgings on the south ; the 
library and common room on the north ; the hall on the east ; and on the west lodg- 
ings for the members. 

The chapel, situated on the south of the inner court, erected at the expense of Dr. 
John Williams, bishop of Lincoln, and afterward archbishop of York, was consecrated 
in 1631. It is a well-proportioned and elegant Gothic edifice, of sixty-two feet in 
length, and twenty-six in breadth, fitted up with a richly ornamented cedar roof, and 
wainscot ; the screen, the pulpit, and eight fine carved figures, are also of cedar, and 
very much admired. The windows, which are of painted glass, and very remarkable 
for their antiquity and the brilliancy of their colors, were procured from Italy, by 
Archbishop Williams, in 1629. 

Baliol college is entered by a fine Gothic gateway, on which are the arms of the 
Baliol family. The chapel of this college was completed in 1529. The east window, 
which represents in brilliant colors the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, was the 
gift of Dr. Stubbs. On a window, on the north side, are represented Philip and the 
Eunuch, executed by Van Linge, in the year 1637. 

The library was finished in 1477, and refitted some years since in a very neat and 
convenient manner, after designs by Mr. Wyatt. It contains a valuable collection 
of manuscripts, some of them beautifully illuminated ; many early printed and rare 
English Bibles ; a good collection of books on general literature, and several very 
curious tracts, arranged and bound up in volumes. The windows of the library are 
decorated with the arms, &c, of the benefactors, which are fully described by Wood, 
in his history of Oxford. 

The hall is on the west side of the quadrangle. Its interior is in the modern style. 

Part of the ancient city wall Avas opposite this college, the remains of which, in 
good preservation, are still visible. Between this wall and the college ran so clear 
a stream, that it gave the name of Canditch (candida fossa), to the street leading by 
it, and by that name the spot was known in the time of Anthony Wood. The cele- 
brated martyrs, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, were confined in Bocardo prison, 
where North Gate stood, which gate was the strongest in the city. Bocardo was near 
the church of St. Michael, at the end of the Corn Market, and the prison is still re- 
membered by some aged inhabitants of Oxford. The prisoners remained there 
together but a short time, for Ridley was taken to the house of Alderman Irysh, and 
Latimer to that of one of the bailiffs of the city ; Cranmer remained in Bocardo. On 
the 16th of October, 1555, Ridley and Latimer were brought to the place called 
Canditch, and were there burnt. They suffered death with courage for the religion 
they professed, in the presence of the chief magistrates of the university and city, 
and a multitude of other spectators. Cranmer, being in Bocardo, ascended to the top 
thereof to see the spectacle, and kneeling down prayed to God to strengthen them. 
On the 21st of March following, Cranmer was brought to the same place and there 
also burnt. 

Radcliffe library (page 289), is a very handsome modern structure, and possesses one 
of the most complete collections of works on natural philosophy extant. The funds for 
building it were bequeathed by the celebrated Dr. Radcliffe ; and the foundation was 
laid in 1737. Its dome affords a wide and magnificent view of Oxford with its spires 
and towers, and the adjacent scenery. The architect wasGibbs, who built St. Mar- 
tin's church, London. 

Opposite the north gate of the library, with Radcliffe-square between, is the square 
of the schools ; containing the treasures of the Bodleian (or university) library, founded 
by Sir Thomas Bodley, on the remains of the library of Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, 
the picture gallery, with the Arundel marbles and Pomfret statues. The picture 
gallery has some few good historic and landscape pieces, with an extensive collec- 
tion of interesting portraits and busts. There are also models of some of the most 
precious remains of antiquity : the arch of Constantine at Rome ; the Parthenon ; the 
temple of Vesta at Tivoli ; the Maison Carree at Nismes ; the Choragic monument 
of Lysicrates, commonly called the Lantern of Demosthenes, at Athens ; the temple 
of " Fortuna Virilis" at Rome ; the theatre of Herculaneum, the temples of Erectheus 
Pandrosus, and Minerva Polias, on the Acropolis; the amphitheatre at Verona, and 
the temple of Vesta at Paestum. 

The Arundel marbles, collected in Asia, and presented by the duke of Norfolk in 
1677, are curious as illustrations of history rather than as works of art. The Pomfre* 
statues were presented by the countess of Pomfret in 1755. 




Carter's Hall Passage, with the Old Town-Hall, Oxford, 



294 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

The Clarendon printing-office was erected early in the eighteenth century, and the 
expense was defrayed by the profits derived from the earl of Clarendon's "History of 
the Rebellion." The architect Vanbrugh has executed a durable but heavy structure, 
really well fitted for the purpose for which it was originally designed. It is two stories 
high, and furnished with a handsome Doric portico ornamented with sculpture. The 
university has now, however, another printing-office of considerable extent, which is 
shown in our engraving on page 291, that has produced some very valuable works. 

The town hall (p. 293), a very handsome edifice, was erected in 1754, at the joint 
expense of the county and the city, and has since undergone considerable improve- 
ment. In 1814 it was visited by George IV. (then prince regent), the late emperor 
of Russia, the king of Prussia, the late duke of York, the prince of Orange, the 
prince of Mecklen burgh, Prince Metternich, Prince Blucher, and other royal and 
noble personages, to whom was presented the honorary freedom of the city. Up- 
ward of 700 persons were present at this splendid scene. Adjoining to the town- 
hall is the council chamber, in which are portraits of Queen Ann ; John, first duke 
of Marlborough ; George, third duke of Marlborough ; Sir Thomas White; Dr. Wall ; 
Alderman Nixon, and Joan his wife ; Zachary Bogan ; Alderman Wise ; Mr. Rowney, 
and other benefactors to the city. • 

The theatre is one of the principal ornaments of Oxford. It was designed and 
completed in five years, by one of the professors, the great Sir Christopher Wren, 
who, from being the most profound mathematician of his age, became its first archi- 
tect. The first stone was laid in 1664, and the whole expense of building and fitting 
it up was defrayed by Archbishop Sheldon, amounting to nearly £15,000. He added 
£2,000 to be laid out. in estates for its support and repair ; and some years since, the 
late Dr. Willis, warden of Wadham college, left £1,000 for the same purpose. The 
ground plan of this theatre is taken from that of Marcellus, and by a judicious geomet- 
rical arrangement, it is made to receive with convenience upward of 3,000 persons, 
though its interior is only eighty feet by seventy. 

St. Mary's church, which is one of the principal ones in Oxford, is a spacious Gothic 
structure, completed at a considerable expense in 1498. On the north side of the 
:hurch is the monumental chapel of Adam de Brome, the founder of Oriel college, 
he provost and fellows of which society are the patrons of the vicarage. The arch 
between the area and the chancel supports an organ by Smith. 

St. Martin's, or Carfax church (p. 281), has been more recently erected. It was 
ouilt by general subscription and parochial rates ; the university as a body, and most 
of the colleges, contributed liberally. 

There are four lecturers, chosen by the four aldermen, the eight assistants, and 
the recorder, who are caljed the Thirteen, and the electors have, at all vacancies, an 
opportunity of selecting the best preachers in the university. St. Martin's is a rectory 
of very small value, in the gift of the king. The first stone of the new church was 
laid October 23, 1820, and it was opened for divine service on Sunday, June 16, 1822. 
The former church was a very ancient structure, and no record of the time of its 
erection now remains. It is conjectured, that at an early period it was much larger ; 
the tower, it is certain, was once considerably higher ; but by command of Edward 
III. it was taken down, as it now appears, because, " upon complaint of the scholars, 
the townsmen could, in time of combat with them, retire to the tower as to their 
castle, and thence gall and annoy them with arrows and stones." The tower con- 
tains six bells. 

Oxford has no staple manufacture or branch of trade, still deriving, as formerly, 
its principal importance and support from the university. The canal, however, which 
was completed a few years back, has opened new sources of commerce, of which 
the citizens will no doubt take advantage. The city of Oxford returns two members 
to parliament, and the university two. The internal government of the city is vested 
in a mayor, high-steward, recorder, aldermen, assistants, town-clerk, chamberlain, 
and common council. The mayor acts at the coronation of the kings and queens of 
England, and receives a gilt bowl and cover as his fee. The magistracy is subject 
to the chancellor or vice-chancellor of the university, in all affairs of moment ; and 
the magistrates and sheriffs take every year an oath to maintain inviolate the rights 
and privileges of the university. Oxford has a population, exclusive of the univer- 
sity, of 18,800 persons, and it is fifty-eight miles west by north of London. Longi- 
tude one degree sixteen minutes west ; latitude fifty-one degrees forty-five minutes 
north. 



# UNIVERSITY TOWNS. 295 

Cambridge is the chief town in Cambridgeshire, and is situated on the Cam, at 
the distance of fifty miles from London. It is also an elegant city, though less so 
than Oxford. The university has no certain date before 1229 : it comprehends sev- 
enteen colleges, which, in most respects, are similar to those of Oxford. King's Col- 
lege chapel, built in the reign of Henry VI., is considered the most beautiful structure 
in either of the two university towns. 

The several colleges of which the University of Cambridge is composed owe, in 
the greater number of instances, their present wealth and importance as much, or 
more so, to the favors and benefactions of a succession of patrons and friends as to 
the endowments of the original founders. To give, therefore, in our limited space, a 
separate history of each college would be useless; for it must either be, necessarily, 
a partial account, or else exhibit a catalogue of names uninteresting to the general 
reader, with details of endowments each very similar to the other. We must content 
ourselves with a general view. 

The Cam forms nearly a semicircle round the town and university. There are 
two principal streets in the town — Trumpington street, into which the road from 
London runs, and Regent street, leading from the Colchester road. These two 
streets, under other names, meet at the opposite end of the town. Between Trump- 
ington street and the Cam is St. Peter's college, the oldest college in the university, 
and the first in order in entering the town from the London road ; a little further on, 
nearly opposite to St. Peter's, is Pembroke college ; then, on the same side with St. 
Peter's, filling up the space between the street and the Cam, are Catharine hall, 
Queen's college, King's college, Clare hall, Trinity hall, Caius college, Trinity col- 
lege, and St. John's college, with the senate-house, and public schools and library 
of the university. On the same side of the street with Pembroke college are Corpus 
Christi, or Bene't college, and Great St. Mary's, the university church. The remain- 
ing six colleges stand, each detached, in different parts of the town : Magdalene col- 
lege on the north bank of the Cam; Sidney college, Jesus college, Christ college, 
Emmanuel college, and the new foundation of Downing college, on the south and 
southeast sides of the town. 

Since 1820, a spirit of general improvement has pervaded the university, as a cor- 
poration, and the governing bodies of the colleges ; the result has been a series of 
extensive alterations, and a number of additions, in the university and college build- 
ings. The increasing number of students annually resorting to Cambridge had ren- 
dered the existing accommodation deficient ; and the increasing value of the prop- 
erty of the university and of the colleges, and consequent augmentation of the funds, 
have not only, in many instances, enabled the accommodation to be extended, but 
have led to some fine architectural improvements. Of buildings erected since 1820 
by the university, the chief are — the observatory, begun in 1822 and 'finished in three 
years, but to which additions are now making ; and the Pitt Press, a splendid build- 
ing, appropriated to the printing business of the university, which was opened on the 
30th of April, 1831. The university has also purchased an old court from King's 
college, at the back of the public schools and library, for the sum of twelve thousand 
pounds, which is to be appropriated to buildings for the purpose of affording addi- 
tional lecture-rooms, greater accommodation to the library, and new offices for the 
despatch of the ordinary business of the university. This court has been pulled 
down, and designs for the new buildings voted for. The beautiful old gateway 
which belonged to the court has been purchased by Trinity college, to be set up as 
an entrance to one of its quadrangles. 

Of college improvements, independently of extensive re-edifications, the chief are — 
the new quadrangle of Trinity college, called King's court, in honor of George IV., 
who contributed one thousand pounds toward the expense of erecting it, of which 
the foundation stone was laid in 1823 ; the great quadrangle of King's college, com- 
menced in 1824 ; the new college of St. John's (erected since 1824), connected with 
the old by a covered br'dge, like a cloister ; and the new front and court of Corpus 
Christi college. Additions have been also made to Christ's, Emmanuel. Jesus, Sid- 
ney, Magdalene, and St. Peter's colleges ; and important alterations are in contem- 
plation for Pembroke college, for which a building fund is accumulating. 

The grounds belonging to those colleges which lie on the banks of the Cam are 
formed into walks, several of which are very pleasant, and a few afford picturesque 
views. The celebrated Dr. Richard Bentley, master of Trinity college, was among 
the first who led the way to those improvements of the grounds, which have con- 



296 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 







UNIVERSITY TOWNS. 297 

verted a quantity of fenny land into ornamental and useful pleasure grounds. " He 
laid out," says Bishop Monk, " those beautiful walks on the opposite side of the river 
Cam, which are so great an ornament and convenience to Trinity college and to the 
university. This ground, previously called the Back Green, had been purchased 
above a century before by the exchange of more than thirty acres of land in the out- 
skirts of Cambridge ; it appears, however, to have been left in its original state of a 
fen. In the years 1717 and 1718 the present walks were formed, and the beautiful 
avenues of limetrees, the very perfection of academic groves, were planted." Dyer, 
writing upward of thirty years ago, thus describes the grounds of the colleges which 
skirt the Cam : — 

" These grounds, men, as they are now disposed, consist of several walks, with 
plantations of majestic elms, except one of a grand row of chestnuts, and two or three 
of limes. The walks are in general straight, and Cam moves near them ; not crowned 
about here with much of his sedge, nor yet with cheerful underwood, but with slow, 
sullen course. Milton, therefore, was always for abusing him, whether writing in 
Latin or English. The narrow bed of the river does not admit of large, magnificent 
bridges ; but one by the late Mr. Essex, an ingenious architect, formerly of this town 
is of great elegance and universally admired. 

" It may be admitted that the public walks of our sister university have some 
superior charms over those we are now describing : the walks are generally more 
winding, without so many formal straight lines and acute angles ; the trees have 
greater variety of foliage (and consequently you have bolder lights and shades), and 
there is more of underwood and shrubbery amid their fine oaks, beech, birch, and 
elms." " But still our walks have their peculiar beauties, adapted to the place, and 
the walk planted with limes from Clare hall forms a vista, lengthened, and of ad- 
mirable effect. You might say, perhaps, that Oxford has not anything of the kind 
equal to this. Taking into consideration the beauty and grandeur of the several 
buildings to be seen from Clare hall, or King's college, Oxford must yield to Cam- 
bridge : nor must you say this is not Grasmere, nor Keswick ; there is no scene 
of the kind throughout all England that can be compared with these. The aspect, 
too, is the best that could be, both for the walks and effect on the adjoining buildings." 

Peter's house, or St. Peter's college, as already intimated, is the oldest of the Cam- 
bridge colleges. It was founded by Hugh Balsham, or Bedesdale, as he is sometimes 
called. This was in the beginning of the reign of Edward I. Balsham was made 
bishop of Ely in the year 1257, and this year is commonly assigned as the date of the 
foundation of the college. But Balsham, at first, only bought two hostles, or hospitia, 
which he formed into one house, in which students lived rent-free, but at their own 
expense. The house, or hospitium, did not become a college for many years after- 
ward — somewhere between the years 1274 and 12S4, for the precise date is not ascer- 
tained. The distinction to be drawn between a hospitium and a college is, that the 
one was a kind of monkish or ecclesiastical house, which might rise or fall like an 
inn, according to its celebrity ; the other, being founded by a royal license or charter, 
and endowed with property, became a legalized and perpetuated institution. Thus 
Peter's house was at first merely an hospitium, in which, says Fuller, " the students 
that lived therein (grinded formerly by the townsmen with unconscionable rents for 
the place of their abode) thankfully accounted themselves well endowed with good 
chambers and studies freely bestowed upon them." Afterward Balsham bestowed 
revenues on the house for the support of a master or head, fourteen fellows, two bible 
clerks, and eight poor scholars ; and having obtained a royal letter, license, or char- 
ter, became thus the founder of the first college in Cambridge university. In the 
fourteenth year of Edward IT. (1320 or 1321), there is a royal license for appropri- 
ating the advowsons of certain churches, to the value of forty pounds per annum, to 
the founding of houses for the use of scholars, notwithstanding a statute. Clare hall, 
which is next in antiquity to Peter's house, was founded in the first year of Edward 
III., in 1326. It was originally an hjospitium, or hall, called University hall, founded 
by the then chancellor of the university, in which students lived, as they did at first 
in Peter's house, rent free, but at their own expense. Being burned down, it was re- 
built, endowed, and received a royal charter, through the means of Lady de Clare, 
granddaughter of Edward I., from whom it takes its name. Pembroke hall was also 
founded by a lady, ihe countess of Pembroke, in the twenty-fifth of Edward III. Her 
husband had been accidentally slain at a tournament held in honor of their wedding, 
which affected the lady so much as to lead her into retirement, and to spend her in 



298 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



come upon charity, of which ihe founding of Pemhroke college is an instance. King's 
hall and St. Michael's hall were founded in 1322 and 1324, but they were merged 
in the great foundation of Trinity college. Merton hall had the same end. We find 
mention of a hall of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary ; and no doubt 
there were even at a late period many others, which have ceased to exist. 

Gonville and Caius college was founded by Richard Gonville, but it may be said 
to have been re-founded by Dr. Caius. He was physician to Queen Mary, after- 
wards muster of his own college, and zealously attached to its interests, and to those 
of the university at large. This worthy though eccentric man built three gates to 
the three courts of his college, on the first of which is inscribed " Humilitatis," the 




Caius Gate of Honor, Cambridge. 



UNIVERSITY TOWNS. 299 

gate of humility; on the second, "Virtutis," the gate of virtue; and on the third, 
" Honoris," the gate of honor (see engraving). Trinity Hall was founded by Wil- 
liam Bateman, bishop of Norwich. 

The founding of Corpus Christi or Benedict college differs somewhat from all the 
others. All the other colleges were founded by individuals who either had a real 
love for literature, and were desirous of promoting its interests, or fell in with th < 
fashion of the time, which pointed to the rich and noble as the supporters of re- 
ligion and science. But Corpus Christi college was founded by two societies, who 
had in view a particular object. These two societies were the gilds of the Blessed 
Virgin and Corpus Christi. Gilds or guilds in early times were not merely associa- 
tions of individuals practising certain trades or " mysteries," but there were also 
many gilds for religious and charitable purposes. The two gilds which founded 
this college were associations which combined something of the character of a 
friendly society with that of an association for devotional exercises. Both sexes 
were admissible; the funds were appropriated to the relief of distressed and sick 
members ; on the death of a member the society, in costume, attended the body to 
the grave ; and sums of money were laid out in masses for the soul of the deceased. 
The society of Corpus Christi being rich and in a flourishing condition, proposed to 
found a college in which young persons might be trained up in academical learning, 
and fitted for making supplications and masses for the souls of the fraternity. A 
union was proposed in the work by the society of the Blessed Virgin ; and a license, 
or royal charter, having been procured, the college of Corpus Christi, commonly but 
wrongly called Bene't college (from Benedict parish, in which the gild of Corpus 
Christi had its hall), was founded. The societies have vanished, but their work 
remains. 

The college which was next founded far surpassed any of the previous foundations. 
This was King's college, founded by Henry VI. He originally instituted a small 
seminary for a rector and twelve fellows, in the year 1441 ; but in 1443 he entirely 
changed his plan, and endowed the college for a provost, seventy fellows and scholars 
(to be supplied in regular succession from Eton, founded and endowed about the same 
time), three chaplains, six clerks, sixteen choristers, and a music master (who now 
possesses also the office of organist), sixteen officers of the foundation, twelve ser- 
vitors for the senior fellows, and six poor scholars. King's college has some peculiar 
privileges. The head of the college, called the provost, has absolute authority 
within the precincts ; and by special composition between the society and the uni- 
versity, its under-graduates (under certain restrictions) are exempt from the power 
of the proctors and other university officers, within the limits of the college ; neither 
by usage do they keep any public exercises in the schools, or are any way examined 
for their bachelor of arts degree. 

The " glorious chapel" of King's college has been very frequently described. Its 
erection, owing to a number of opposing obstacles which interrupted and retarded 
the work, was spread over a period of nearly one hundred years. The foundation 
stone was laid in 1446, by Henry VI. in person, who however did not contemplate 
the erection of a structure so exquisitely elaborated. The stone-work was completed 
in the reign of Henry VII. ; the glass-work was not put up till the beginning of the 
following reign ; and a great part of the casing of the chapel was not finished till 
1532. The following general survey of the chapel is from Dyer's " History of the 
University " : — 

" It is impossible for any one to approach this building without reverence. The 
architectural skill of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is here displayed in its 
utmost perfection. It appears, from the will of the founder, Henry VI., that it is not 
built exactly according to his original plan, but the work was continued, though too 
parsimoniously, by Edward IV. and Richard III. ; the chapel, its roof, exterior 
decorations, turrets, and pinnacles, together with its interior oratories, and the 
glazing of the windows, were completed by Henry VI. ; but the finishing hand was 
given to it by Henry VIII. As it now appears, it would not be sufficient to say, 
that, as an architectural work, it is the pride of Cambridge, and surpasses in mag- 
nificence any edifice at Oxford ; it is allowed to be superior to every Gothic building 
in Europe. Without, the prodigious stones of which it consists — the vast buttresses 
by Avhich it is supported — the loftiness and extent of the building — the fine pro- 
portions of the tower and pinnacles ; — and, within, the grand extended view — the 
admirable arched roof, without the support of any pillars, displaying all the rich 



300 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




_ Interior of King's College Chapel, Cambridm 



UNIVERSITY TOWNS. 301 

ness of its fine fan-work — and the matchless paintings on its windows — all com- 
bine to impress the beholder with emotions which can be better felt than described." 

In Dallaway's " Observations on English Architecture," are the following re- 
marks on King's college chapel, which, in addition to an interesting description of 
the building, give a brief condensed sketch of the progress of ecclesiastical archi- 
tecture in England, from its first rude efforts to the triumph of the art in the con- 
struction of such a work as the one before us : — 

" The great cause of our admiration, upon the first entrance into this chapel, is 
the unity of design ; from which it appears to be smaller than in reality, or than on 
frequent examination it would do ; — a circumstance invariably happening to those 
who visit the church of St. Peter at Rome. The grand whole instantly fills the 
eye, without any abatement or interruption. When we find leisure for the detail, 
we may admire the infinite parts which compose the roof, and the exquisite finishing 
of the arms and cognizances of the house of Lancaster; and regret that, being so 
large, they should be stuck against the finely-wrought pilasters, like monumental 
tablets in a parish-church. The stained glass heightens the effect of the stone- 
work, and gives it a tint which can never be produced by any wash of lime, with 
whatever substance it may be combined, when the light passes through diminutive 
squares of raw white glass. As so much is added to architectural excellence, how 
great soever it may be, by a sober and uniform tone of color — somewhat, if the ex- 
pression be allowable, between glare and sombre — the modern improvers of our 
cathedrals have shown judgment in abandoning the plain white or yellow which 
pervade the cathedrals of Ely and Wells. King Henry VI., as it is evident from 
the injunction he makes, in the instance of both his colleges, against superfluous 
masonry, never intended a roof so splendidly elaborate as that designed and per- 
fected under the auspices of his successors. His objection was not to the difficulty 
or impracticability of the work, for several of great extent had been erected prior 
to and during his reign, but to the enormous expense it would require. 

After this lengthened notice we can but briefly allude to the painted windows, in 
themselves, apart from the building in which they are placed, extraordinary works 
of art. These windows are each nearly fifty feet high, and are filled with de- 
lineations of the principal events recorded in the Bible. 

Between the founding of King's college and Trinity college — both royal foun- 
dations, the first the greatest college of its time, the second the largest and leading 
college of Cambridge — there were five colleges founded. These were Queen's 
college, Catharine hall, Jesus college, Christ college, St. John's college, and Magda- 
lene college. " I confess," says Fuller, " building of colleges goeth not by planets, 
but by Providence ; yet it is observable that * * * when one once brake the 
ice, many follow in the same beaten track of charity." We may therefore pass 
over the history of each separate foundation, the details being very similar, observ- 
ing, by the way, that St. John's college, the second college of Cambridge, ranking 
next to Trinity college in extent, was founded by Lady Margaret, countess of Rich- 
mond, mother of Henry VII., who also founded Christ college, and to whom the 
university is indebted for the first professorship which appears on its records. The 
history of Trinity college is thus given by the present bishop of Gloucester in his 
" Life of Bentley " : — 

" It was founded by King Henry the Eighth, about one month before his death, 
and endowed with revenues taken from the dissolved monasteries. Its earlier years 
were somewhat clouded by the struggles between the Romish ana Reformed 
churches; but upon the accession of Elizabeth the foundation was completed, and 
placed upon its present liberal footing, giving ample encouragement to the pursuit 
both of ornamental and useful knowledge, and opening the emoluments of the col- 
lege, as rewards to the merit of the students, in the most unrestricted manner. Ac- 
cordingly, we find that Trinity college rose at once from the infancy to the maturity 
of its fame: and from that epoch to the civil troubles in the reign of Charles I., a 
period of little more than eighty years, it flourished in a manner unexampled in the 
history of academical institutions. The illustrious names of Lord Bacon and Sir 
Edward Coke stand at the head of a list of its members distinguished in the theatre 
of public life. During the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., a period when extra- 
ordinary attention was shown to merit in ecclesiastical appointments, a greater num- 
ber of bishops proceeded from this than from any other society ; and it was observed, 
about the beginning of the seventeenth century, that Trinity college might claim at 



302 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

the same time the two archbishops of Canterbury and York, and no less than seven 
other principal prelates on the English bench. So greatly did theological learning 
flourish here, that when the present translation of the Bible was executed by order 
of James I., no less than six of the translators were found among the resident fel- 
lows of the college. In elegant literature it claimed an equal celebrity, having, in 
addition to many of the Elizabethan poets, produced those two constellations of wit 
and learning, John Donne and Abraham Cowley ; while it boasts, in the next gen- 
eration, the still more illustrious name of Dryden. So high was its reputation 
during the period of which we are speaking, that fellows of the society were chosen 
to fill the headships of other colleges in the university. 

" The civil troubles and the intolerance of the Puritans brought ruin and confusion 
upon this as well as other societies; all the royalist fellows were expelled, along 
with Dr. Thomas Conder, the master, one of the most exemplary characters that 
ever presided over a college. The Restoration did not bring back the prosperity or 
the spirit that had been banished by the evil times; nor could the society recover 
the paramount station which it had so long maintained. There were indeed some 
circumstances peculiarly auspicious to Trinity college. Dr. John Pearson and Dr. 
Isaac Barrow, Wo of the brightest characters which grace the period of Charles II., 
were successively masters. In the meantime, the fabric nearly attained to the state 
in which it continued till the year 1824 ; the beautiful quadrangle, half of which 
had been built in the mastership of Dr. Thomas Neville, the dean of Peterborough, 
and in a great degree at his own cost, was now completed by the munificence of 
two restored fellows, Dr. Thomas Sclater, and Dr. Humphrey Babington ; and the 
noble library, an edifice unrivalled for magnificence and convenience, was erected 
by a subscription of the members, under the auspices of Dr. Barrow. Above all, 
the presence and example of Sir Isaac Newton might have been expected to sustain 
the spirit of a college, the scene of all his great discoveries, of which he con- 
tinued many years a resident fellow. In spite of these advantages, the house was 
observed to decline in numbers and celebrity in the latter years of the seventeenth 
century." 

We can not here enter into the details of Bentley's connexion with Trinity col- 
lege, nor the extraordinary contests which he maintained with the university and 
with individuals. He was appointed master in 1700, and died in 1742, at the age of 
eighty. Very nearly one half of his long term of mastership was spent in struggles 
which affected his official existence, but which arose, not out of conflicting prin- 
ciples, but tempers. 

Emmanuel college and Sidney college were founded in the years 1584 and 1598, 
which completed the number of colleges, sixteen in all, until 1800, when the 
seventeenth, Downing college, received its charter. This latter college was founded 
according to the will of Sir George Downing, who died in 1749 ; but the appropria- 
tion of the estates and the granting of the charter were delayed by litigation. Nearly 
two sides of a quadrangle of the buildings of Downing college have been erected ; 
but, owing to the want of funds, it is uncertain when the college will be completed. 

The first college was founded toward the end of the thirteenth century ; five during 
the fourteenth ; four in the fifteenth ; six in the sixteenth ; and, after an interval of 
more than two hundred years, the last college was founded in the last year of the 
eighteenth century. 

The finest view of a portion of the college and university buildings is to be ob- 
tained in Trumpington street, where, on one side, is Great St. Mary's on the other 
the senate-house, public library, and King's College chapel. The senate-house, 
a fine structure, is almost thrown into the shade by its vicinity to the chapel. It is 
built of Portland stone; its style of architecture is the Corinthian ; the interior is one 
hundred and one feet long, forty-two broad, and thirty-two high. The public business 
of the university, such as examinations, passing of graces, and admission to degrees, 
is carried on here, and strangers wishing to observe the ceremonies are admitted into 
the galleries which are calculated to contain one thousand individuals. Great St. 
Mary's is the University church, in which, on Sundays and holydays, sermons are 
preached by graduates appointed in their turn by the vice-chancellor. 

The most munificent of modern bequests to the university are those of Sir George 
Downing and Lord Fitzwilliam. The first, as already mentioned, is the foundation 
of a college, named after the donor; the second is that of the Fitzwilliam museum. 
Lord Fitzwilliam died in 1816, and by his will gave his collection of curiosities, 



UNIVERSITY TOWNS. 



303 



paintings, &c, to the University of Cambridge, together with one hundred thousand 
pounds, South Sea annuities, the interest of which to be appropriated to the erection 
of a suitable building for the museum. In the meantime a temporary building was 
fitted up for its reception. In 1836, ground for a suitable structure for the museum 
was purchased and cleared ; and in the course of the two following years this beauti- 
ful edifice (a view of which is given on page 296) was completed. 

While mentioning bequests we may perhaps not inappropriately close with a view 
of the Pepysian Library, the gift of the well-known Samuel Pepys to Magdalene 
college, of which he was a member. 




The Pepysian Library, Magdalen College, Cambridge. 



304 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

NAVAL STATIONS. 

Portsmouth, the principal rendezvous of the British navy, is situated on the west 
side of the isle of Portsea, in Hampshire. To the west of the island is the bay called 
Portsmouth harbor, excelling every other on the coast of England for its spaciousness, 
depth, and security. The obvious utility of this harbor, in such a situation, caused 
it to be used at an early period as a station for shipping, and hence the rise of the 
town of Portsmouth on the narrow inlet by which it communicates with the English 
channel. It is also to be observed, that the strait between the mouth of this harbor 
and the isle of Wight forms the celebrated roadstead of Spithead, which is capable 
of containing a thousand sail at anchor in the greatest security. The original or old 
town of Portsmouth, surrounded by ancient walls ; the modem suburban towns of 
Portsea and Southsea, respectively situated to the north and south of the original 
town ; and the town of Gosport, on the opposite side of the inlet to the harbor, may 
all be said to form one cluster of population, probably numbering not less than 70,000. 
The beach opposite Southsea being well adapted to sea-bathing, has caused that sub- 
urb or village to become a watering-place of some note. 

The docks, arsenal, building-yards, and all the various other establishments con- 
cerned in the fitting out and safekeeping of the national shipping, render Portsmouth 
an object of wonder to all who see it for the first time. The dockyard includes the 
great area of one hundred acres. The smithery is a vast building, where anchors 
are wrought weighing from seventy to ninety hundredweight each. On the anchor- 
wharf hundreds of these useful implements are piled up, ready for immediate service. 
The ropery, where the cordage for the vessels is prepared, is three stories high, fifty- 
four feet broad, and one thousand and ninety-four feet long. The gun-wharf is an 
immense arsenal, consisting of various ranges of buildings for the reception of naval 
and military stores, artillery, &c. The small armory is capable of containing 
twenty-five thousand stands of arms. 

There is a naval college, where a, hundred scholars in time of war, and seventy in 
lime of peace, are taught ; thirty, who are the children of officers, being maintained 
and educated at the public expense. During war, the number of persons employed 
in the various establishments connected with -the public service at Portsmouth lias 
amounted to five thousand. The principal buildings connected with the arsenal and 
dockyards, are the commissioner's house, the government house, the victualling office, 
the port-admiral's house, and the naval and military barracks. The promenade along 
the fortifications forms one of the most agreeable features of the town. 

Among objects of curiosity, we may specify the Victory, Nelson's flag-ship at Tra- 
falgar, the Semaphore telegraph, and the house (No. lib High street) in which the 
duke of Buckingham was temporarily residing when, in front of it, he was stabbed 
to death by Lieutenant Felton, in 1628. The church of Portsmouth is a spacious 
Gothic structure, with a comparatively modern tower, useful as a landmark to sea- 
men. There are various charitable, literary, and scientific institutions connected 
with the t( wii. 

Woolwich, from its importance as the grand military and naval depot for England, 
as well .1.- froa. its proximity to London, has become one of the most frequented and 
popular resets of those who in their rambles in pursuit of amnsement, wish to be 
instructed at i»ie same time. In this town may be seen many of the vast prepara- 
tions necessary to render effective the precautions by which the peace of England is 
preserved. Here are manufactured the instruments by which the attacks if an 
enemy may be repelled or retaliated — here are constructed some of the immense 
vessel* by which the British empire is enabled to exert its influence on distant coun- 
tries, and here those chivalrous youths are educated, who are destined to direct the 
operations of arms and ships, when their exertions are called for. 

Woolwich is situated about eight miles from London, in a direction east by south. 



NAVAL STATIONS. 



305 




306 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

or about nine miles and a half by water. From the southern portion of the town an 
extensive and picturesque country is presented to the eye; Shooter's hill, surmounted 
by Sevemdroc/g castle, forming a conspicuous object in the distance, while, nearer, 
the pretty village of Charlton delights the spectator with its rural beauties. The 
town is bounded on the north by the Thames, whose waters, bearing ships loaded 
with the produce of all parts of the world, roll proudly by. The general aspect of 
the town itself is not very inviting, yet in those parts i'arthest from the river several 
neat and pretty houses have lately sprung up, which, with the handsome buildings 
erected by the government, render the appearance more cheerful than the small and 
dirty houses nearer the river would lead a visiter to suppose. Strangers, however, 
occupy themselves chiefly in the inspection of the curiosities of the place, in visiting 
the arsenal, the dockyard, the rotunda or military museum, &c, while the resident 
will find many delightful scenes in the vicinity to console him for the dulness of the 
town itself. 

One of the most interesting establishments in Woolwich is the royal military 
academy, for the education of young gentlemen in all that relates or is in any way 
necessary to the knowledge of artillery and engineering. These gentlemen cadets 
number from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty ; they are instructed 
in the ancient and modern languages, mathematics, chymistry, the art of fortifica- 
tion, drawing, fencing, &c. The establishment is under the superintendence of a 
governor, who is always master-general of the ordnance for the time being ; the res- 
ident officers are a lieutenant-governor and inspector, a professor of mathematics, a 
professor of fortification, masters of drawing, languages, &c. Examinations of the 
students are held monthly, when reports of the state of progress are laid before the 
master-general, and according to these reports the students, or cadets, are selected to 
supply vacant commissions in the respective corps of the royal artillery and 
engineers. 

The building is situated on the southeastern edge of Woolwich common, toward 
which it presents an elegant facade ; and the appearance of the tower with its tur- 
rets, from a distance, is extremely picturesque. This academy was established in 
the royal arsenal as early as 1719, and chartered by warrant of George II. in 1741 
but the accommodationat the commencement of the present century being insuffi- 
cient, a new situation was chosen, and the present building erected in 1805. It is a 
spacious pile, partly in the early English, and partly in the Elizabethan style. A 
large tower in the centre, surmounted by four castellated turrets with octagonal 
domes, is the principal feature of the building. This is connected with the wings 
by a castellated colonnade or arched recess. The main entrance, a simple archway, 
is approached by a long avenue from the north, whence the wooded heights of 
.Shooter's hill may be perceived rising in the distance, to the left of the building. 

The barracks for the royal artillery form the most elegant suite of buildings in 
Woolwich ; they are situated to the north of Woolwich Common, and command an 
uninterrupted prospect of the country to the south of the town. The principal front, 
•extending above twelve hundred feet, consists of six ranges, connected by four build- 
ings thrown a little behind, and by as many covered ways or colonnades of the Doric 
order, surmounted with balustrades. The material of the building is a light brick, 
relieved by Portland stone in the lower portions ; this is also employed for the elegant 
portal in the centre of the building. Two cupolas, one containing a clock, the other 
a wind-dial, ornament the summit, and break the uniformity of the line. In the 
eastern wing is a spacious and elegant chapel containing one thousand sittings, in 
which divine service is regularly performed. The other principal parts of the building 
•.are the library and reading-room, for the use of the officers, supplied with the 
periodicals and daily papers ; and the mess-room, sixty feet in length and fifty in 
width. This latter room is connected with two others, the drawing and ante rocrns, 
which together form a splendid suite of apartments, in which frequent balls and 
entertainments are given by the officers to their friends. 

From the principal entrance an avenue, two hundred and twenty yards in length, 
terminated by a handsome gateway at the northern portion of the barracks, divides 
the building into two quadrangles, by the sides of which are the stabling and barracks 
for the horse artillery; and at the extremity of the east quadrangle is a spacious 
riding-school. The whole establishment is arranged for the accommodation of from 
three thousand to four thousand men. 

Passing through the barracks and bearing toward the northeast, the gates of the 



NAVAL STATIONS. 



307 




308 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

Royal arsenal will be observed but a short distance off. This establishment is com- 
posed of* a number of buildings, which, if not distinguished for their outward appear- 
ance, will, when the visiter becomes acquainted with ilie interior, be considered more 
interesting than perhaps any others in "Woolwich. 

Previous to the time of George I. the foundry fur cannon, which now forms one 
of the principal departments of the arsenal, and may be said to be the cause of its 
present importance, was situated in Moorfields, from which place it was removed in 
consequence of an accident, attended with great loss of life, which happened during 
ihe casting of some large pieces of ordnance in the manufactory at Moorflelds. A 
laro-e concourse of people had assembled to witness the operation, and among them 
was a young Swiss, named Schalch, who, examining the different parts of the works 
with "reat minuteness, found that the moulds in which the cannon were to be cast were 
ID a damp state, and knowing that the steam generated by the heated metal would 
be so violent as to cause an explosion, he immediately communicated the fact, with 
ois fears for the consequences, to Colonel Armstrong, the surveyor-general, who in- 
stantly perceiving the danger, endeavored to persuade his friends to retire with him 
from the scene of the impending calamity. In this he partially succeeded, but many, 
discrediting the fact that the slight dampness observable in the moulds would cause 
such disastrous effects, remained behind. The prediction of Schalch was verified. 
In a few minutes after his departure the liquid metal flowing into the moulds con- 
verted the dampness instantaneously into steam, which, unable otherwise to find its 
escape, burst the moulds asunder, threw the heated metal about in all directions, and 
destroyed great part of the building. Many persons were killed on the spot, others 
died soon after from the injuries they had received, and scarcely any escaped without 
some wound or bruise more or less serious. 

A few days after the accident a notice appeared in the public papers requesting 
Schalch to call at the ordnance office in the tower, and suggesting that the interview 
might be advantageous. Schalch found it so ; for his mechanical abilities having 
been put to the test in an examination he underwent in an interview with Colonel 
Armstrong, he was requested in the name of the government to seek out some eligible 
site within twelve miles of the metropolis to which the manufacture of ordnance 
might be transferred. Having chosen the spot called " the Warren" at Woolwich, 
a foundry was erected there, and the young Swiss appointed superintendent, an office 
he continued to hold for sixty years. He died in 1776, at the advanced age of ninety 
years, and was buried in Woolwich churchyard. 

On entering the gateway the visiter, after obtaining permission to view the works 
(which is readily granted at the guard-house, where he will be furnished with a ticket 
admitting him to all the departments), will find the foundry a few steps before him. 
At the present time there is no important work going on at this building, but it is 
provided with every necessary for the most extensive ordnance manufacture. It has 
four air-furnaces, the largest of which will melt one hundred and seventy-five 
tons of metal. In the year 1809, when the establishment was kept in great 
activity, three hundred and eighty-five guns were cast here, and in the following year 
three hundred and forty-three. The guns are cast solid, and are afterward bored and 
turned in a separate building. For this purpose the gun itself is turned round on its 
axis while a centrebit is applied to the mouth and gradually advanced to the opposite 
end ; the operation of turning the exterior being carried on at the same time. Every 
gun when completed is minutely examined by magnifying glasses on the outside, 
and by mirrors in the interior, in order that any flaw may be detected : if in this ex- 
amination no defect is found, it is then charged with powder and fired, that it may 
be fully proved. It sometimes happens that the most accurate scrutiny is insufficient 
to detect some minute defect, and in that case the only means by which such becomes 
known is by the destruction of the piece when fired. This operation is perfornu-d on 
the banks of the canal, near the great storehouses, at which place there is a large 
saw-mill, and a curious circular pianing-machine, which those visiters who are not 
acquainted with such instruments on a grand scale are permitted to inspect. 

Near thefoundryis the " Pattern-Room," a building in which isdcposited a pattern 
or model of every article used in the artillery service. The first article which pre- 
sents itself on entering the building is a model of the machinery employed in reducing 
gunpowder to minute particles fit for the several purposes to which it is to be applied. 
The powder is made up into cakes of about four inches square, which are put into 
the machine, and are then ground into minute grains, varying in size according to 



NAVAL STATIONS. 



30S 




310 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

the dimensions of the ordnance for which it is intended ; it being found that large- 
sized grains are better for cannon than the small particles used for musketry, as, from 
the large quantity required, the small-grained powder would take a longer time to 
ignite, in consequence of the exclusion of air from the central portion, than the 
powder composed of larger pieces, which allow the air to pass between them. Near 
to this model is a machine intended to measure the strength of the powder by the 
recoil of the piece which is loaded by it. A certain quantity is put into a small 
cannon hanging from an arc, from which also an index is suspended. The distance 
to which the gun is sent in the recoil is marked by the index, which sliding rather 
tightly in the groove of the arc, remains fixed at the point to which the gun drives it ; 
for after the discharge, although the gun oscillates for some time, the space it 
traverses gradually becomes less, the most extensive being the recoil consequent on 
the discharge. Thus the force of the recoil is accurately and permanently registered, 
and by it the strength of the powder is judged. 

In the room to the left of this are specimens of Congreve rockets, from a small one 
of twelve or fourteen inches in length to the largest used in the service, above six 
feet long. These formidable weapons have been much used in modern warfare, 
being employed to carry various destructive instruments. The cases of the Congreve 
rockets are made of a cylindrical piece of iron, but formed somewhat differently at 
the head, according to the purposes for which they are to be employed. Those called 
carcass-rockets are armed with strong conical heads of iron, pierced with holes, and 
containing a substance as hard and solid as iron itself, which, when once inflamed, 
is inextinguishable, and scatters its burning particles in every direction. Others carry 
shells or case-shot, the firing of which is regulated by slow fire attached to the rocket, 
and which, when they explode, commit as much devastation as the shells from bombs. 

The Congreve rockets are generally fired from a long iron cylinder (exhibited in 
the same room with the rockets), which is placed nearly horizontally, and the rockets 
will travel, according to their weight and size, distances of from two thousand to 
four thousand yards. They were first used in the attack of Boulogne in 1806, and 
have since been much employed both in field service and sieges, particularly at the 
bombardment of Copenhagen. 

In this department are alse exhibited several kinds of grape, canister, bar, chain, 
and other shot; hand-grenades, a beautiful model of the magazine of a ship, another 
fine model of a fireship, and, in short, almost every article used either in the army or 
navy for the annoyance or destruction of an enemy. 

Besides these there are models of the fireworks exhibited on days of public re- 
joicing, the most elaborate of which is the model of the Temple of Concord, erected 
in St. James's park in 1814, with the paintings, including a very beautiful one by 
Stothard (the largest he ever painted), which adorned the original structure. 

Connected with the pattern-room is the laboratory, in which the cartridges, 
rockets, fireworks, and other articles of chymical construction used in the service, 
are prepared. 

Leaving this building, and proceeding to the north, the extensive range of store- 
houses of the royal artillery is approached. In these repositories there are generally 
kept complete outfittings for ten thousand horses: this is the number at present in 
the building ; but a short time since there were sufficient articles for twenty thousand 
cavalry. 

These articles include saddles (arranged in heaps on the sides of a room nearly 
three hundred feet long), horses' bits (hanging from the ceiling, where they sparkle 
like the glittering stalactites of a grotto), pistols, swords, horse-shoes, whips, &c, &c. 
From the upper part of these warehouses the whole area of the arsenal may be seen, 
together with the immense tiers of cannon in the field immediately below, where 
there are no less than twenty-four thousand pieces of ordnance, of which nearly three 
thousand are of gun-metal, the remainder being of iron. These are arranged in pieces 
of two hundred and two different sizes. In other parts of the arsenal there are nearly 
three millions of cannon-balls and bomb-shells, painted and arranged in pyramidal 
groups. 

From the arsenal a few steps will bring us to the gates of the Royal dockyard, an 
establishment to which Woolwich may be said principally to owe its present impor- 
tance. At an early period the natural capabilities of the place were deemed admira- 
bly adapted for the construction of vessels, the river at this part being nearly a mile 
across, and deep enough to float vessels of the largest burthen within a very short 



NAVAL STATIONS. 



311 




312 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

distance of the shore : and accordingly, in the reign of Henry VIIL, a royal dock- 
yard was established here, in which the well-known "Harry Grace a. Dieu" waa 
built in 1515. This magnificent vessel, after exciting the greatest wonder and ad- 
miration on account of its size (being then the largest vessel ever built), and the 
splendor of its decorations, for a period of about forty years, was at length accidentally 
consumed by fire, in 1553, in the very yard in which it was built. 

It was not, however, until the reign of Elizabeth that the dockyard of Woolwich 
became of any importance. That wise princess, seeing the value of a well-appointed 
navy to other nations, resolved to pay more attention to her own ; and as the success 
of a naval expedition depends, not only on the talents and enterprise of its com- 
manders, but in a great measure on the build and equipment of the vessels, all that 
the experience of the seaman and the theory of the mathematician could suggest for 
the improvement of naval architecture, was put to the test in the specimens which 
emanated from the dockyard at Woolwich. 

The superior build of the vessels constructed at this place raised it to considerable 
importance, and it was from here that most of the ships celebrated in the victories 
of Drake and Hawkins, and in the voyages of Cavendish and Frobisher, were 
launched. 

It was in the reign of Charles I., after the dockyard had been greatly enlarged and 
the interior economy much improved, that the magnificent vessel, " The Sovereign 
of the Seas," was built (p. 311). She was registered for sixteen hundred and thirty- 
seven tons ; measured in length two hundred and thirty-two feet, in breadth forty- 
eight feet, and in height from the keel to the highest point of the stern seventy-six 
feet. After having signalized herself in several actions during nearly sixty years, she 
was at last destroyed by fire at Chatham, whither she had proceeded to undergo some 
repairs, in the year 1696. 

The dockyard increased as the importance of the navy became more apparent to 
succeeding sovereigns, and at the present time is of very considerable extent. It 
commences at the village of New Charlton on the west, and extends nearly a mile 
along the banks of the river to the east, at which part it closety approaches the arse- 
nal. It contains two large dry docks for the repair of vessels, and an extensive basin, 
four hundred feet long, and nearly three hundred in breadth, capable of receiving 
vessels of the largest size. There are also extensive ranges of timber-sheds, store- 
houses, several masthouses, a large pond for masts, and others for boats. And as all 
the iron instruments used in the construction of ships are manufactured at this place, 
a large building has been erected for the purpose, provided with steam-engines of 
great power. The anchors, many of immense size, which have been cast and fin- 
ished here, are disposed in long ranges, ready for instant employment. * 

Each department is under the superintendence of a separate officer, the whole 
being under the direction of the board of admiralty. A commissioner, the master- 
attendant, the storekeeper, and the principal officers of the other departments, reside 
on the spot, several houses having been erected for their accommodation. 

Let us now proceed to the repository and rotunda (see engraving). It is situated 
on the margin of Woolwich common, to the south of the town. The ground around 
the building is much broken, and intersected with two or three pieces of water, which 
afford the artillery corps opportunities for the practice of many manoeuvres likely to 
be brought into operation during war. Embankments and fortifications have also 
been constructed, mounted with the various species of ordnance employed in the 
defence of besieged places, at which the men are exercised. They are often directed 
to form pontoons across the ponds, and practised in the methods adopted for the 
raising of sunken guns. &c. 

The rotunda was originally erected in Carlton gardens by George IV., when prince 
regent, for the reception of the allied sovereigns on the occasion of their visit to Eng- 
land, in 1814, and was subsequently presented by him to the garrison at Woolwich, 
Where it was removed to become a depository for models connected with military and 
naval architecture. Its form is a regular polygon of twenty-four sides, having a diam- 
eter of one hundred and twenty feet, with the roof ascending in the form of a cone to 
more than fifty feet. 

The building, having a tent-like form, was at first wholly unsupported in the 
eentre ; but not being considered perfectly secure, a pillar was subsequently erected 
»k a central support. 

The interior is crowded with military weapons of offence and defence. In th< 



NAVAL STATIONS. 



313 




314 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

centre, tastefully arranged around the pillar, are old English weapons, as the ancient 
matchlock, the wheel-lock, two-handed swords, early cannon, shields, bills and par- 
tisans, pikes, helmets, cuirases, &c, together with many trophies from foreign 
powers. Above these is a beautiful suit of armor, said to have belonged to the chiv 
alrous Bayard. 

Plymouth is another important naval station, besides being a thriving commercial 
town. It is situated at the head of the capacious haven of Plymouth sound, in Dev- 
onshire, on the east side of a tongue of land formed by the estuaries of the rivers 
Plym and Tamar, which here empty themselves into the sea. Essentially connected 
with Plymouth is Devonport, situated in the immediate neighborhood, and properly 
an appendage of Plymouth, though of late years distinguished by a separate name. 
The united population, in 1831, was 75,534. Plymouth having gradually risen from 
the condition of a small fishing-town to its present size, most of the streets are irregu- 
lar, and by no means elegant or commodious; but the new parts of the town are 
handsome, and are spreading rapidly. 

Plymouth carries on a considerable trade in timber with North America and the 
Baltic, and an intercourse has been established with the West Indies. The coasting- 
trade is chiefly with London, Newcastle, Newport (in Wales), and Bristol. The 
chief imports are coal, culm, corn, wine, and timber. 

It is as a naval and military station that the town is chiefly distinguished. Situated 
upon a capacious and secure natural harbor, near the mouth of the English channel, 
it is well adapted for this purpose, fleets having a ready exit from it upon any expe- 
dition toward the Mediterranean, the Indies, or America. The dock, which is situ- 
ated at Devonport (formerly on that account called Plymouth dock), extends along 
the bank of the Tamar, in a curve three thousand five hundred feet in length, with a 
width at the middle, where it is greatest, of sixteen hundred feet, and at each extrem- 
ity one thousand, thus including an area of ninety-six acres. Of the fortifications 
connected with Plymouth, the most remarkable is the citadel, which was erected in the 
reign of Charles II. It is placed in a most commanding situation on the east end of 
the height called the Hoe, which shelters the town from the sea. It is exceedingly 
well fortified, and is constantly garrisoned. It contains the residence of the governor 
of Plymouth, and barracks for five or six hundred troops. The victualling office, an 
important establishment, containing storehouses, granaries, baking-houses, and cel- 
lars, for supplying the meat, bread, and liquors, required to provision the vessels of 
the royal navy, occupies a splendid building in the adjacent township of East Stone- 
house. 

The port of Plymouth is distinguished for its capacity, and the security which 
it affords in its several parts. It is capable of containing two thousand sail, and is 
one of the finest harbors in the world. It consists of three divisions or harbors : Sut- 
ton pool, immediately adjoining the town ; Catvvater, an extensive sheet, formed by 
the estuary of the Plym ; and the harbor or bay of Hamoaze. At the mouth of these 
harbors the great bay of Plymouth sound forms an excellent roadstead, which is now 
completely secure by the erection of the breakwater across its entrance. This work 
is an insulated mole, or vast heap of stones, stretching across the entrance of the 
sound so far as to leave a passage for vessels at either end, and opposing a barrier to 
the heavy swell rolling in from the Atlantic. Its length is seventeen hundred yards, 
the eastern extremity being about sixty fathoms to the eastward.of St. Carlos's rocks, 
and the western three hundred west of the Shovel rock. The middle part is contin- 
ued in a straight line one thousand yards, and the two extremities incline toward 
the northern side of the straight part in an angle of about one hundred and twenty 
degrees. This great work was begun August 12, 1812. During its progress con- 
vincing proofs of its efficacy and utility were afforded. The expense of erecting the 
breakwater is estimated at one million one hundred and seventy-one thousand one 
hundred pounds. 

The Eddystone Lighthouse is an important appendage to Plymouth harbor, the 
entrance of which would, without this beacon, be extremely dangerous (see engra- 
ving, giving a view of the eastern side). 

The public buildings of Plymouth are, the customhouse, the exchange, the Athe- 
naeum, the public library, the theatre, the classical and mathematical school, the 
mechanics' institute, &c. 

Of the two parish churches, the most ancient is that of St. Andrew, built previous 
to 1291 , a handsome building of the Gothic order. Charles's church is also a Gothic 



TOWNS OF RESIDENCE AND RECREATION. 



315 




Eddystone Lighthouse. 

structure. Among the charitable institutions which are about thirty, are a work- 
house, a public dispensary, an eye-infirmary, a lying-in charity, a public subsciiption 
school, almshouses, bible societies, &c. 



CHAPTER XX, 



TOWNS OF RESIDENCE AND RECREATION. 



The best-built town in England, and a favorite residence of the higher classes, 
either for recreation, or the pursuit of health, is Bath. It is situated in Somerset- 
snire, at the distance of about one hundred and eight miles west from London, and 
lies in a valley divided by the river Avon. Though of great antiquity, the place 
came into notice and rose to importance in aomparatively modern times, in conse- 
quence of possessing certain hot mineral springs, considered to be efficacious in the 
cure of different complaints. The water issues from the ground at a temperature of 
from 109° to 117° of Fahrenheit, and the quantity discharged daily from the various 
outlets is 184,320 gallons. The water has been analyzed, and is found to contain 
sulphate of lime, with considerably lesser proportions of muriate of soda, sulphate 
of soda, carbonic acid, and carbonate of lime, also a minute portion of silica and oxyde 
of iron. It is stimulating in its properties, and is said to be most successful in cases 
of palsy, rheumatism, gout, and cutaneous diseases. Over the springs there are ele- 



318 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

gant pump-rooms and baths. The modern parts of the town are built as streets, 
crescents, and squares, the houses being of polished sandstone, and in some instances 
constructed with much taste. Living is expensive in the town during the fashionable 
season. The population in 1831, was 38,063. 

Cheltenham competes with Bath as a fashionable resort for valetudinarians, real 
or imaginary. It is situated in Gloucestershire, eighty-eight miles west from London, 
and thirty-nine and a half northeast of Bath. The situation is exceedingly delight- 
ful, being remarkably well sheltered by the range of Coteswold hills on the north- 
east, and having an exposure to the south and west ; it is on this account preferred 
to all other towns in England by persons from India and other hot climates. Besides 
being attractive from the salubrity and mildness of its climate, Cheltenham, like Bath, 
possesses mineral springs reckoned of value for medical purposes, but particularly 
for invalids with diseased livers. There are several springs, some of which are 
chalybeate, but their properties and strength are liable to variation. Cheltenham is 
laid out in a very ornamental manner, with walks and pleasure-grounds, and may be 
described as perhaps the prettiest town of a small size in England. As in Bath, the 
expense of living is very great. The population of the parish in 1831 was 22,942, 
about one half of whom belonged to the town. 

Brighton, on the coast of Sussex, has risen into importance within the last sixty 
years, partly in consequence of a beach remarkably well adapted for sea-bathing, 
and partly from its attracting the regard of George, prince of Wales, who reared a 
marine palace here, in a Chinese style. The population in 1S31 was 40,634. Brighton 
is an elegant and airy town, with much to render it, agreeable as a place of residence 
for persons in affluent circumstances. The Steyne, a spacious and beautiful lawn, 
nearly surrounded by houses, the marine parade, and several terraces overlooking the 
sea, furnish delightful walks ; while the baths, theatre, assembly rooms, &c, form 
additional attractions. There is a regular intercourse with Dieppe by steam-vessels. 
The chain-pier is a remarkable object: it was erected in 1823 at an expense of 
£30,000, and is 1,134 feet long. 

Among other towns of this class, we can only notice Heme Bay, Margate, and 
Ramsgate, situated on the coast of Kent, and which may be considered as the chief 
places of summer recreation for the inhabitants of London, to and from which steam- 
ers ply daily. Heme Bay is a place of recent date, rising into notice, and possessing 
a pleasant open beach, with space for promenading. Margate is a town of a much 
earlier date, situated in an open part of a bold line of chalky cliffs, and consists of a 
confused cluster of streets, with some lines of building of a more airy description in 
the environs, The town is well supplied with shops, bazars, and places of amuse- 
ment, during the bathing season ; it also possesses numerous respectable boarding- 
houses, where, on moderate terms, a person may reside for a short time in a very 
agreeable manner. At these houses, parties of pleasure are made up for the day, 
the expense of cars and refreshments during the excursion being defrayed by general 
contribution. Within a mile or two along the coast is another summer retreat called 
Broadstairs ; and beyond it, at an equal distance, is Ramsgate. The chalk cliffs 
here, which are bold and precipitous, afford a high and salubrious position for the 
chief part of the town, and beneath there is a fine tract of sandy beach for the use 
of bathers. The harbor at Ramsgate is one of the best in England, and affords shel- 
ter to all kinds of vessels in the Downs. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

CATHEDRAL TOWNS. 

Of this class of towns we can here only advert to those of more than usual tmpoi- 
tance. 

Canterbury, the capital of Kent, is a city of great antiquitv. having formed the 
Beat of an ecclesiastical establishment to St. Augustine, the apostle of Christianity 
o Britain in the sixth century. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, the town derived 



CATHEDRAL TOWNS. 



31/ 




318 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

great importance from the erection or extension of a cathedral, on a most extensive 
scale, and of the purest Gothic architecture. In 1162, the archiepiscopal see was 
bestowed on the famous Becket, who enjoyed it eight years, till the period of his 
murder in 1170, when his shrine became an object of extraordinary reverence, and 
brought pilgrims in thousands from all parts of the kingdom. 

The present cathedral stands mainly on the same foundation with the ancient 
British church which Augustine found in Canterbury on his arrival at the end of the 
sixth century, nor is it altogether impossible that some portion of that primitive 
edifice may still remain in the pile as it now exists. It is acknowledged on all hands 
that part of Archbishop Lanfranc's cathedral is still standing ; and the vaults under 
the choir appear to be of a style of architecture anterior at any rate to the Norman 
conquest. 

The cathedral of Canterbury is built in the usual form of a cross, having, however, 
two transepts. Buttresses rising into pinnacles are ranged along the walls both of 
the nave and the transepts; and a square tower of great beauty ascends from the 
intersection of the western transept and the nave. Two other towers also crown the 
extremities of the west front : that to the north, which had been long in a ruinous 
state, and the upper part of which was removed many years ago, was taken down 
some years since from the foundation, and is now being restored. 

The cathedral of Canterbury is very spacious. The following are its principal 
dimensions: the length of the whole building from east to west, measured in the 
interior, is five hundred and fourteen feet; of which the choir occupies not less than 
one hundred and eighty feet, being an extent unequalled by that of any other choir 
in England. The breadth of the nave with its side aisles is seventy-one feet; and 
its height eighty feet. The larger transept is one hundred and fifty-four, the smaller 
one hundred twenty-four feet, in length from north to south. The height of the great 
central tower, called the Bell-Harry steeple, is two hundred and thirty-five feet ; and 
that of the Oxford and Arundel steeples, at the north and south extremities of the 
west front, about one hundred and thirty feet. 

It would require far more space than we can afford to describe at length all the 
different parts and ornaments of the cathedral which are interesting either from their 
merit as productions of art, or from the historical associations with which they are 
connected. We can only mention shortly a few of the more remarkable. Among 
these is the ancient stone-screen at the entrance to the choir, the date of which is 
supposed to be the early part of the fourteenth century. It presents a rich display 
of Gothic sculpture ; and among the figures by which it is adorned are six kings 
wearing crowns, and holding in their hands five of them globes, and the sixth a 
church. The ancient stalls of the choir were removed in 1734, when the present 
were substituted in their place. Some parts of the ornamental work are supposed to 
have been executed by the celebrated Gibbons, by whom the admirable carvings of 
the fittings in the choir of St. Paul's were cut. Behind the choir, instead of the Lady 
chapel, or chapel dedicated to the Virgin, which usually occupies this place in other 
cathedrals, is the chapel of the Holy Trinity, erected about 1184 in honor of St. 
Thomas a Becket, and long the most attractive part of the church, as containing his 
shrine. " This shrine," says Stow, " was builded about a man height, all of stone, 
then upward of timber plain, within which was a chest of iron, containing the bones 
of Thomas Becket, scull and all, with the wound of his death, and the piece cut out 
of his scull laid in the same wound. The timber-work of this shrine, on the outside, 
was covered with plates of gold, damasked with gold wire, which ground of gold was 
again covered with jewels of gold, as rings, ten or twelve cramped with gold wire 
into the said ground of gold, many of those rings having stones in them, brooches, 
images, angels, precious stones, and great pearls." Hither, in 1220, the body of the 
saint was removed from the crypt underground, where it had till then been deposited ; 
the pope's legate, the archbishops of Canterbury and Rheims, and divers other bishops 
and abbots, bearing the coffin on their shoulders, amidst a display of all that was most 
gorgeous and imposing in the pomps and splendors of the ancient ritual. The king 
himself, Henry III., was present. The expenditure of Stephen Langton, the arch- 
bishop, is said to have been so profuse on this occasion, that he left a debt upon the 
revenues of the see which was not discharged till the time of his fourth successor. 
The cost, however, was in time amply repaid. Becket's shrine continued to draw 
an immense revenue of gifts to the church as long as the old religion lasted. Erasmus, 
who was admitted to a sight of the treasure deposited in the sacred chamber a shor* 



CATHEDRAL TOWNS. 



319 




320 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

time before the reformation, tells us, that under a coffin of wood, enclosing another 
of gold, which was drawn up from its place by ropes and pulleys, he beheld an amount 
of riches the value of which he could not estimate. Gold, he says, was the meanest 
thing to be seen ; the whole place shone and glittered with the rarest and most 
precious jewels, most of which were of an extraordinary size, some being larger than 
the egf of a goose. At the dissolution, Henry VIII. seized upon all this wealth. 
Stow 'says, that " the spoil in gold and precious stones filled two great chests, one 
of which six or seven strong men could do no more than convey out of the church a'< 
once." One of the precious stones, called the Regal of France, which had been 
presented by Louis VII., he set and wore as a thumb-ring. At the same time he 
ordered the remains of Becket to be burned, and the ashes scattered to the winds. 
The bones of St. Dunstan and St. Anselm, which were also preserved in the cathe- 
dral of Canterbury, were probably treated in the same way. The only trace of the 
shrine of the martyr that now remains is afforded by the pavement around the spot 
where it stood, which is worn down by the knees of the crowds of worshippers that, 
during more than three centuries, offered here their oblations and their prayers. The 
spot, we may here mention, which is pointed out as that on which Becket was assas- 
.-uiatod, is in the northern portion of the western transept. That part of the church 
is on this account called the Martyrdom. At the east end of the chapel of the Holy 
Trinity is another of a circular form, called Becket's Crown, probably from the man- 
ner in which the ribs of the arched roof meet in the centre. It appears not to have 
been finished at the time of the Reformation : and the works being then suspended, 
it remained in that state till about the middle of the last century, when it was com- 
pleted at the expense of a private citizen. 

In the chapel of the Holy Trinity stands the ancient patriarchal chair in which the 
archbishops are enthroned, and which, according to tradition, was the regal seat of 
the Saxon kings of Kent. It is formed of three pieces of gray marble, cut in panels, 
the under part being solid, like that of a seat cut out of a rock. In this chapel also, 
among other monuments, is that of the Black Prince, still in wonderful preservation 
after the lapse o; nearly four centuries and a half. On a handsome sarcophagus of 
gray marble, richly sculptured with coat-of-arms and other ornaments, lies the figure 
of the warrior in copper gilt, with his face displayed, but the rest of his body cased 
in armor. The sword, which had at one time been hung by his girdle, now lies loose 
by his side. Covering the whole is a wooden embattled canopy, and suspended over 
this are some of the actual weapons and other armor worn by the prince : his gauntlets, 
his helmet and crest, a surcoat of velvet elaborately adorned with gilding and em- 
broidery, and the scabbard of his dagger, displaying the arms of England and France. 
It is commonly said that the weapon itself was taken away by Oliver Cromwell ; but 
ibis tradition has probably arisen merely from its having disappeared in the civil 
'•(infusions of Cromwell's time. The shield of the prince hangs on a pillar near the 
head of the tomb. Among the other tombs in this the most sacred part of the church, 
are that of Henry IV. and his second wife Queen Jane of Navarre, and those of 
Archbishop Courtney, Cardinal Chatillon (of the Coligny family), and Cardinal Pole. 
In other parts of the church are the monuments of Archbishops Chichely, Bourchier, 
Walter, Peckham, Warham, Ludbury, and many other personages connected with it 
in ancient times. 

A very curious part of the cathedral is what is called the Undercroft, being the 
crypt over which the choir is raised. It is undoubtedly the most ancient part of the 
building; and as the architecture appears to be Saxon, it is supposed to have been 
part of the older church left standing Uy Lanfranc. The walls are perfectly des- 
titute of ornament, and everything presents the aspect of the most venerable an- 
tiquity. Of the pillars, some are round, others twisted, and neither in shafts nor 
capitals are there two of them alike. The circumference of most of the shafis is 
about four feet, and the heighth of shaft, plinth, and capital, only six feet and a half. 
From these spring semi-circular arches, making a vaulted roof of the height of 
fourteen feet. The portion of this crypt under the west end of the choir was long 
in the possession of a congregation of Calvinists, which originally consisted of 
refugees driven from the Netherlands by the persecutions of the du'ke of Alva, in 
the reign of Edward VI., and afterward increased by a number of French Huge- 
nots, who sought an asylum in England on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 
They were principally silk-weavers ; and their numbers were at one time very con- 



CATHEDRAL TOWNS. 



m. 




322 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



siderable, but they latterly greatly diminished. Their place of meeting for divine 
worship in the cathedral is said to have been granted to them by Queen Elizabeth 




Capital of a Column in the Crypt. 

There still remain in several of the windows of the church some fine specimens 
of ancient painted glass ; but the productions of this most fragile of the arts, with 
which it was formerly very richly adorned, were in great part mercilessly destroyed 
during the fanatic fury of the seventeenth century. A magnificent window in the 
northern wing of the western transept, in particular, suffered severely. The relation 
of its demolition has been given by the person who was himself most active in the 
work — an individual of the name of Richard Culmer (but more commonly called 
"Blue Dick"), who, on the recommendation of the mayor of Canterbury, was ap- 
pointed by the House of Commons one of the six preachers in the cathedral, after 
the abolition of episcopacy. This zealot writes, " The commissioners fell presently 
to work on the great idolatrous window, standing on the left hand as you go up into 
the choir ; for which window some affirm many thousand pounds have been offered 
by outlandish papists. In that window was now the picture of God the Father, 
and of Christ, besides a large crucifix, and the picture of the Holy Ghost in the 
form of a dove, and of the twelve apostles ; and in that window were seven large 
pictures of the Virgin Mary, in seven several glorious appearances; as of the angels 
lifting her into heaven, and the sun, moon, and stars, under her feet ; and every pic- 
ture had an inscription under it, beginning with Gaude, Maria ; as ' Gaude, Maria, 
Sponsa Dei ;' that is, ' Rejoice, Mary, thou Spouse of God.' There were in this win- 
dow many other pictures of popish saints, as of St. George, &c. ; but their prime 
cathedral saint, Archbishop Becket, was most rarely pictured in that window, in 
full proportion, with cope, rochet, mitre, ^crosier, and his pontificalibus. And in the 
foot of that huge window was a title, intimating that window to be dedicated to the 
Virgin Mary." In afterward describing his own share in the work, he lets out that 
he was not a little vain of the performance, although he withholds his name : "A 
minister," he says, " was on the top of the city ladder, near sixty steps high, with a 
whole pike in his hand, rattling down proud Becket's glassy bones, when others then 
present would not venture so high." The modes in which self-admiration exhibits 
itself are very various. 

But we must now leave the cathedral, and proceed to the other buildings which 
we have also to notice. Before quitting the quarter, however, in which the metro- 
politan church is situated, we must direct attention to the fine specimen of a kind of 
architecture in which our ancestors greatly delighted — the Precinct Gate — of the 
present appearance of which, worn and half obliterated by time, but still majestic, 



CATHEDRAL TOWNS. 




324 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

our engraving furnishes a faithful representation. It forms the principal entrance, 
that from the southwest corner, 10 the extensive court in which the cathedral stands, 
surrounded by the prebendal houses, the deanery, what was the archiepiscopal 
palace, and other buildings connected with the establishment of the church. It 
opens upon the ancient avenue from the High street, called Mercery lane, where, 
in the Chequer inn, occupying more than half the west side, and extending a con- 
siderable way down the High street, and in other large tenements adjoining, were 
formerly lodged many of the pilgrims who crowded hither from all parts to pay 
their devotions at the shrine of St. Thomas. The gate is correctly described by 
Somner, in his " History of the Cathedral," as " a very goodly, strong, and beautiful 
structure, and of excellent artifice." From an inscription over the arch, now nearly 
illegible, it appears to have been built in the year 1517. Of the space within the 
precinct, a considerable part is occupied by the cemetery of the cathedral, and the 
remainder which is not covered by buildings is for the most part laid out in gardens. 
It may form about a fifth part of the whole city within the walls. Of the arch- 
bishop's palace, which stood on the west side, little is now remaining. The great 
court has been converted partly into gardens and partly into a timber-yard ; and a 
private dwelling-house has been formed out of the porch of the great hall. There 
are a considerable number of private houses, and also of shops, within the precinct. 

Several of the old city gates of Canterbury were venerable for their antiquity ; 
but they have now, we believe, all been removed, with the exception of that called 
Westgate, at the northwest extremity of the High street, over which is the city 
prison. At the opposite extremity of the same street was Ridinggate, crossing the 
road to Dover, near to which were two arches of Roman brick and architecture. 
At "Worthgate, forming the termination of Castle street, on the southwest, was 
another Roman arch ; and there was another at Quejjiagate, leading out from the 
east side of the cathedral precinct. 

Directly facing this last-mentioned entrance stands the very handsome structure 
of which we give an engraving (p. 321) — the great gate of the now ruined monastery 
of St. Augustine. This monastery is commonly believed to have been originally 
founded by St. Augustine on ground granted to him by King Ethelbert, and to have 
been at first dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. It was St. Dunstan who, in the 
year 978, dedicated it anew to these apostles, and also to St. Augustine. Speaking 
of the two establishments of Christ Church and St. Augustine's, Lambarde, in his 
" Perambulation of Kent" (1596), says: " The monks of the which places were as 
far removed from all mutual love and society, as the houses themselves were near 
linked together, either in regard of the time of their foundation, the order of their 
profession, or the place of their situation. And, therefore, in this part it might well 
be verified of them, which was wont to be commonly said, ' Unicum arbustum non 
alit duos erithacos ; — One cherry-tree sufficeth not two jays.' For indeed one whole 
city, nay rather one whole shire and county, could hardly suffice the pride and am- 
bitious avarice of such two irreligious synagogues ; the which, as in all places they 
agreed to enrich themselves by the spoil of the laity, so in no place agreed they one 
with another ; but each seeking everywhere and by all ways to advance themselves, 
they moved continual and that most fierce and deadly war, for lands, privileges, 
relics, and such like vain worldly pre-eminences ; insomuch as he that will observe 
it shall find that universally the chronicles of their own houses contain for the most 
part nothing else but suing for exemptions, procuring of relics, struggling for offices, 
wrangling for consecrations, and pleading for lands and possessions:" In another 
place, having occasion to notice one of their early quarrels, he again returns to the 
subject: " Thus you see how soon after the foundation these houses were at dis- 
sension, and for how small trifles they were ready to put on arms, and to move great 
and troublesome tragedies ; neither do I find that ever they agreed after, but were 
evermore at continual brawling within themselves, either suing before the king or 
appealing to the pope, and that for matters of more stomach than importance ; as, 
for example, whether the abbot of St. Augustine's should be consecrated or blessed 
in his own church or in the other's ; whether he ought to ring his bells at service, 
before the other had rung theirs ; whether he and his tenants owed suit to the 
bishop's court ; and such like, wherein it can not be doubted but that they consumed 
inestimable treasure for maintaining of their most popish pride and wilfulness." 

The small portion of the monastery which now remains adjoins the great gate- 
way ; but at the dissolution of the religious houses it was so extensive a building 



CATHEDRAL TOWNS. 



325 




326 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

that Henry VIII. seized upon it as a palace for himself. It was afterward granted 
to Cardinal Pole for life, by Queen Mary. On his decease it reverted to the crown ; 
and, in 1573, Queen Elizabeth, having paid a visit to Canterbury, kept her court here. 

This building afterward came into the possession of Lord Wotton, whose lady, 
after her husband's death, received Charles II. here on his way to London, at the 
Restoration. From her it is still commonly called Lady Wotton's palace. The 
whole area comprehended within the enclosure of the monastery is about sixteen 
acres. In the fifth edition of Mr. Gostling's work, printed about thirty years ago, 
it is said : " The west front of the monastery extends about 250 feet, and the walls 
which enclose the whole precincts are standing ; the great gate has buildings ad- 
joining, which once had some handsome apartments, and particularly a bed-cham- 
ber, with a ceiling very curiously painted. The whole is now let to one who keeps 
a public-house ; and, having plenty of excellent water, this apartment is converted 
to a brew-house, the steam of which has miserably defaced that fine ceiling. The 
rest of the house he has fitted up for such customers as choose to spend their time 
there, having turned the great court-yard into a bowling-green, the fine chapel ad- 
joining to the north side of the church into a five's-court, with a skittle-ground near 
it; and the great room over the gate to a cock-pit." A short distance to the south- 
east of the gate stands a fragment known by the name of Ethelbert's tower, which 
appears to have been a portion of the old abbey church. Not far from this was 
erected some years ago a city and county hospital for the relief of the sick and lame 
poor. It stands near the middle of the area. To the east of that again is a small 
edifice of great antiquity, called St. Pancras's chapel, the materials and architecture 
of which appear to be Roman, and which, according to tradition, was King Ethel- 
bert's private chapel, in which he worshipped his ancestral gods before his conver- 
sion to Christianity. It is only thirty feet long by twenty-one in breadth. 

But the most interesting monument of antiquity in Canterbury, and one of the 
most interesting in the kingdom, is the church of St. Martin, at some distance east 
from the chapel of St. Pancras, and beyond the precinct of the monastery. It 
stands on the side of a hill, rising on the left hand of the road leading to Deal, 
within half a mile of the city walls. The body of this church, which is still used 
for divine service, is built of Roman bricks; and the character of the architecture, 
although about that there has been much difference of opinion, has been thought to 
concur in indicating that its erection must have preceded the Saxon invasion. It is 
probable, at any rate, that it was built of the materials, and on the site, of a Roman 
edifice. Bede states that Augustine, on his arrival, found two ancient. Christian 
churches at Canterbury, the one within the city in its eastern quarter, and the othei 
at a short distance without the walls. The former was, no doubt, that which was 
eventually converted into the cathedral, and the other this church of St. Manin ; 
or, at least, the older building in the same place, out of the materials of which the 
present church was constructed. Here Queen Bertha is said to have had the ser- 
vices of religion performed to herself and her Christian attendants by her chap- 
lain Luidhard, before the arrival of the Roman missionary ; and it was here also 
that Augustine first performed mass, the other church within the city not having 
been opened till it was enlarged and repaired. A very ancient font still exists in 
St. Martin's church, which is asserted to have been that used at the baptism of King 
Ethelbert. 

Such are the principal memorials of its ancient greatness which are now left to 
this venerable ecclesiastical metropolis. Our limits have enabled us rather to note 
rapidly the chief points of interest presented by each than to describe any of then) 
fully. A complete account of the cathedral alone would furnish matter for a 
volume, and the subject has indeed occupied several large volumes. The early his- 
tory of some others of these old buildings, again, carries us so far into the deepest 
night of the past, that, although there is little to relate, there is, on that very ac- 
count, the more to conjecture, and the wider field for the imagination to expatiate in. 
In traversing the streets of Canterbury, we tread ground which has probably been 
deemed holy and famous since religion, in any form, first set up her temples in the 
land, or shed a mystic sanctity over hill and grove. There is reason to believe 
that the first Christian churches were usually, if not always, planted on those sites 
which superstition had previously consecrated in the hearts of the people. Besides, 
it can hardly be doubted that Canterbury was a Roman station ; and if so, it was 
most likely a British town before the arrival of the Romans. The position of the 



CATHEDRAL TOWNS. 327 

place would point it out for a settlement on the first occupation of the country — 
situated, especially as it was, in the district that was probably first seized upon and 
peopled. The barbarian rights of druidism, shadowing them with gloom and fear, 
may therefore have first given distinction to the spots on which now rise the cathe- 
dral and the old church of St. Martin, monuments of the religion of purity, and 
peace, and hope. But if the vision of these primitive times is dim and uncertain, 
there was at least a long subsequent period during which Canterbury stood in celeb- 
rity and glory among the foremost of the cities of the earth. The history of a great 
part of the middle ages is so nearly a blank, or at least is marked by so few events 
that interest us in the present day, that we are apt to form a very inadequate con- 
ception of the length of that tract of time. The histories of Greece and Rome 
have been familiarized to our minds in such amplitude of detail, that we make a 
sufficient allowance for the space in the chronology of the world over which they 
extend ; and for a similar reason we are still less given to contract within too nar- 
row bounds our estimate of the period comprehended under what may be strictly 
called modern history. The Reformation, for instance, seems to us now a very old 
event ; and the time that has since elapsed, a long stretch of years. It appears 
like all the history we have, with the exception of a portion hardly worth attention, 
since the dissolution of the western empire. Yet that overlooked portion is in 
reality more than three times as long as the other, which we allow almost ex- 
clusively to fill our imaginations. If we are, therefore, to take a full view of what 
Canterbury has been, we must carry our contemplation back over not only her three 
last centuries of comparative obscurity and decay, but her longer preceding period 
of renown and splendor. At the Reformation, the first thronging of the world's 
multitudes to the shrine of Becket was an older event than the Reformation is now ; 
and from the Reformation back to the arrival of St. Augustine, was three times as 
long a retrospect as it is from the present day to the Reformation. 

The town of Canterbury is old, and, like most cathedral towns, is a dull and for- 
mal place of residence, with a proportion of genteel inhabitants. It is, however, neat 
and clean, and is surrounded by a fertile and pleasant tract of country. It has a 
number of large hotels and posting-houses, to accommodate the numerous travellers 
passing between the metropolis and Dover, the chief out-port for France ; but since 
the completion of the railway connecting Dover with London, and which does not 
touch Canterbury, these will, in all likelihood, be entirely dispensed with. The dis- 
tance from London is fifty-six miles, and from Dover sixteen. The only object of 
attraction in the town, besides the cathedral, is a pleasure-ground called the Dane- 
john, a corruption of the word donjon, such a building having once occupied the 
spot, in connexion with the city walls. The area of the field is laid out with an ave- 
nue of trees, and is principally otherwise a grassy esplanade, open freely to all the 
inhabitants. In 1790, the field was presented by Mr. Alderman James Simmonds 
for the use and recreation of the inhabitants in all time coming, an act of generosity 
deserving the highest commendation. The population of Canterbury in 1831 was 
14,463. 

The ancient city of York, considered as the second in the kingdom in dignity — the 
chief town of the county, and the cathedral city of the archiepiscopal diocese bearing 
its name — is situated at the confluence of the rivers Foss and Ouse, in one of the 
richest and most extensive plains in England. Its population in 1831 was 25,359. 

York, whatever its first rise might be, was a city of the Romans, and occupied by 
Roman citizens as a colonv. It was successively the seat of Adrian, Severus, and 
other emperors : Severus died here, in the year 210. At the time of the Norman 
conquest, it was a city of considerable consequence and size. This eminence it re- 
tained for several centuries ; but latterly it has sunk into a mere county and cathedral 
town, that is to say, a place where a considerable number of legal and ecclesiastical 
functionaries reside, and from which articles of necessity and luxury are diffused over 
a neighboring rural district. 

It is entered by four principal gates or bars, has six bridges, a cathedral, twenty- 
three churches, besides places of worship for various dissenting bodies ; a guildhall, 
county-hall, and other public buildings. The most remarkable object by many de- 
grees is 'he cathedral, or minster, a most superb specimen of Gothic architecture, 
measuring in length five hundred and twenty-four and one fourth feet ; in breadth 
across the transepts, two hundred and twenty-two feet ; the nave being in height 
ninety-nine, and the grand tower two hundred and thirteen feet. The various parts 



328 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




CATHEDRAL TOWNS. 



329 




330 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 






were built at different times between 1227 and 1377. The parts most admired are 
the east window and the screen dividing the choir from the body of the church. This 
window consists of upward of two hundred compartments of stained glass, containing 
representations of the Supreme Being, saints, and events recorded in Scripture. The 
screen is a piece of carved wood-work in a highly ornamental style. The chapter- 
house is also much admired : it is a magnificent structure, of an octagonal form, sixty- 
i three feet in diameter and sixty-eight feet in height. York minster has, within the 
last few years, twice suffered severely from fire. 

York was at one time a commercial town of some importance, conducting trade 
by means of the river Ouse, which is navigable for vessels of one hundred and twenty 
tons burden. It still possesses a few small manufactures. 

Winchester, a town of great antiquity in Hampshire, at the distance of sixty-two 
miles from London, is situated in the bottom of a rich grassy vale, through which 
flows the Itchin, a small river which issues into the sea at Southampton. There was 
a town here before the Christian era, and it afterward became the principal city of 
the Danish, Saxon, and Norman dynasties. It was the scene of Alfred and Canute's 
glories; and here, with innumerable princes, bishops, and abbots, they lie interred. 
Till the revolution, it continued a chief place of residence of the royal family ; a pal- 
ace built by the Stuarts is now used as a barrack for soldiers. 

In the reign of Edward III., in 1366, Winchester became the episcopal see of the 
celebrated William of Wykeham, who greatly improved the cathedral, and insti- 
tuted a college for the education of youth. The cathedral has undergone various 
mutations; but, being lately repaired and cleaned, is now one of the finest structures 
of the kind in Britain. The splendid mausoleum of William of Wykeham, in one 
of its aisles, is an object of great interest. At a short distance from the cathedral 
are placed the venerable buildings composing the college of Wykeham, at which a 
number of young gentlemen are educated and prepared for the university. Another 
highly interesting object of antiquity is the hospital of St. Cross, situated about one 




•■.■•■■>,-:■ ■■■";.,'}':.■:■■' ■■■■■ " :,.:.;^ 1 --^-'- >-■>■■>. ■ 

mf i I n ill ii aiS ' . _•,;„.- lj,iiit y 

Chapel and Hospital of St. Cross. 



CATHEDRAL TOWNS. 331 

mile down the Itchin. Founded by Henry de Blois, bishop of Winchester, and 
brother of King Stephen, in 1136, St. Cross is the most perfect specimen remaining 
in England of the conventual establishments of the middle ages, and affords a resi- 
dence and means of subsistence to thirteen indigent old men. The chapel, the 
portion of buildings upon which the principal labor and cost appear to have been 
expended, is in the cathedral style ; that is to say, it consists of a nave and side aisles, 
with a chancel and transepts, and a huge and massy Norman tower over the inter- 
section, which has originally formed a lantern to throw a dim oblique light upon the 
high altar, but it is now divided off by floors. The leads of the tower can be as- 
cended without much difficulty ; and from them there is a very fine view of the rich 
meadows around, the Southampton railway, the city, cathedral, and college of Win- 
chester, and the valley of the Itchen, upward and downward. 

Externally the building is plain, but the different parts of it are admirably propor- 
tioned ; and the whiteness of its color renders it a striking object as contrasted with 
the rich green of the meadows and the dark foliage of the trees. The towers, and 
all the eastern turrets, which appear to be in very nearly the same state as they were 
left by the architects of De Blois, are of squared stone, joined in the neatest and 
most durable manner. 

The western parts, which have undergone alteration and repair in times more recent, 
have not the same air of firmness and durability about them ; for they are in many 
places composed of flints and hard cement, which, though in reality, one of the most 
lasting kinds of building, especially when alternated with binding courses of stones 
or well-burnt bricks, as we find it in the Roman remains in this part of England, has 
not the same appearance of durability as regular courses of squared stone. The 
early castle-building Normans of the age of the Conqueror, and the two or three 
preceding ones, are unrivalled, even at the present day, for the solidity and perma- 
nence of their masonry. This is proved not only in the Norman part of the chapel 
of St. Cross, but in the tower and transepts of the cathedral of Winchester, which 
were built by Walkelin, the cousin of the Conqueror, which were erected about half 
a century before. On the outside, these specimens of the most substantial building 
are a little weather-beaten, and gray in some places with lichen ; but not a stone is 
honeycombed, not a joint has opened, nor is there a single set in the foundations or 
crack in the superstructure throughout the whole. In the inside they have the same 
freshness of appearance as if they had been built only a few years ago. The interior 
of De Blois's building, in the chapel of St. Cross, has been daubed pretty liberally 
with whitewash, so that its general surface can not be seen ; but judging from what 
appears through this unseemly coating, we would be disposed to conclude that the 
masonry here is as proof against time as that of Walkelin in the cathedral. 

Winchester is composed of a variety of old streets, and seems among the least im- 
proved towns in England. Latterly it has been inspired with a little animation, by 
becoming a station on the line of the London and Southampton railway ; in excavating 
for which was found a petrified basket containing three eggs, which also had been 
changed into grey flint. Eggs and basket are now soldered into one complete mass, 
and can not be separated. This is curious as showing that animal and vegetable 
substances can be converted into flint, from having been buried in chalk for a period 
of years much within the range of human history. Population in 1831, 9,212. 




Petrified Basket of Eggs, found at Winchester. 



332 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




LONDON. 



CHAPTER XXII 




London, the capital of England and metropolis of the British empire, is situated 
on the banks of the Thames, in the counties of Middlesex and Surrey, and within a 
day's journey of the southern shore of Britain, in latitude 51° 30' 47" north. The 
name London is traced to a Celtic or British origin, though some doubts are enter- 
tained respecting its exact signification. The more common opinion is, that it 
originates in the words Llin, a pool or lake, and din, a town or harbor for ships. As 
the Thames at one time spread into a lake on the Surrey side, this signification is 
sufficiently descriptive of the local position of the metropolis. On the spot now 
occupied by the city, or more ancient part of the metropolis, which is on the left or 
northern bank of the Thames, a town had been built and possessed by the Romans 
eighteen centuries ago, and from that period it has constantly been the seat of an 
increasing and busy population. Its chief increase and improvement, however, have 
been since the great fire in 1666, which destroyed a large number of the old streets 
and public edifices. 

The original city was fortified by a wall, which has long since been removed, to 
allow of an expansion into the adjacent fields ; and as the number of houses and streets 
without the old line of wall has at length greatly exceeded those within, the city, as 
it is still named, is like a mere kernel in the mass. The extending city has in time 
formed a connexion with various clusters of population in the neighborhood, including 
Westminster on the west, and by means of bridges, Southwark and Lambeth on the 
south. The whole metropolis, reckoning by continuous lines of houses, extends to 
a length of nearly eight miles, by a breadth of from six to seven, and it is computed 
that the whole includes at least thirty-five square miles. 

The following is the list of districts included within what is usually described as 
London, with their population in 1831 : London within the walls, fifty-seven thousand 
six hundred and ninety-five ; London without the walls, sixty-seven thousand eight 
hundred and seventy-eight; city of Westminster, two hundred and two thousand and 
eighty ; out-parishes within the bills of mortality, seven hundred and sixty-one thousand 
three hundred,and forty-eight ; parishes not within the bills of mortality, two hundred 
and ninety-three thousand and five hundred and sixty-seven ; Southwark, ninety-one 
thousand and five hundred and one ; total, one million four hundred and seventy-four 
thousand and sixty-nine. London within the walls contains ninety-eight parishes, most 
of which are very small in size, but at one time were very populous. The practice of 
living out of town, and of using the dwellings of the city for warehouses, has greatly 
lessened the population in latter times. Without the walls, there are eleven parishes. 



SS4 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

independently of the parishes in Westminster and Southwark. The largest and most 
populous of the suburban parishes is Marylebone. Adjoining the suburban though 
really town parishes, there are various country parishes, as Greenwich, Deptford, 
Camberwell, Clapham, Westham and Stratford, Hammersmith, Hampstead, &c, 
containing an aggregate population of one hundred and twenty-nine thousand four 
hundred and eighty ; and adding this number to the above one million four hundred 
and seventy-four thousand and sixty-nine, there was within a compass of about eigrft 
miles round London, in 1831, a population of one million five hundred and eighty-four 
thousand and forty-two, which is probably now increased to about two millions. 
Within the last fifty years, London has doubled in extent, and at present is rapidly 
increasing on all sides, particularly on the north, west, and south. In no town in 
Great Britain are there to be seen so few empty houses. The total assessed rental 
of the metropolis in 1830 was five millions one hundred and forty-three thousand 
three hundred and forty pounds, but the real rental was supposed not to be less than 
seven millions of pounds. 

The increase of London to its present enormous size, has been promoted by certain 
highly favorable circumstances. First, it has for ages been the capital of England, 
and seat of the legislature and court ; and, since the union with Scotland and Ireland, 
it has become a centre also for these parts of the United Kingdom. Being therefore 
a point of attraction for the nobility, landed gentry, and other families of opulence 
from all quarters, a vast increase of population to minister to the tastes and wants of 
these classes has been the result. While deriving immense advantages from this 
centralizing principle, London has been equally, if not far more indebted to its ex- 
cellent situation on the banks of a great navigable river, and in a fine part of the 
country. As already mentioned, London proper, or the greater part of the town, 
stands on the left bank of the Thames, on ground rising very gently toward the 
north ; and so even and regular in outline, that among the streets, with few excep- 
tions, the ground is almost flat. On the south bank of the river, the ground is quite 
level, rather too much so; and on all sides the country appears very little diversified 
with hills, or anything to interrupt the extension of the buildings. The Thames, 
that great source of wealth to the metropolis, is an object which generally excites a 
lively interest among strangers. It is a turbid muddy stream, rising in the interior 
of the country at the distance of one hundred and thirty-eight miles above London, 
and entering the sea on the east coast about sixty miles below it. It comes flowing 
between low, fertile, and village-clad banks, out of a richly ornamented country on 
the west, and arriving at the outmost houses of the metropolis, a short way above 
Westminster Abbey, it pursues a winding course between banks thickly clad with 
dwelling-houses, warehouses, manufactories, and wharfs, for a space of eight or nine 
miles, its breadth being here from a third to a quarter of a mile. The tides affect it 
for fifteen or sixteen miles above the city ; but the salt water comes no further than 
Gravesend, or thirty miles below it. However, such is the volume and depth of 
water, that vessels of seven or eight hundred tons reach the city on its eastern quarter 
at Wapping. Most unfortunately, an extended view of this stream is hid from 
the spectator, there being no quays or promenades along its banks. With the ex- 
ception of the summit of St. Paul's, the only good points for viewing the river are the 
bridges, which cross it at convenient distances, and by their length convey an accurate 
idea of the breadth of the channel. During fine weather, the river is covered with 
numerous barges or boats of fanciful and light fabric, suitable for quick rowing ; and 
by means of these pleasant conveyances, as well as small steamboats, the Thames 
forms one of the chief thoroughfares. 

London is fortunate in a particularly salubrious situation, whether as respects its 
relation to the river or its subsoil. A large portion of the entire city is built on gravel, 
or on a species of clay resting on sand ; and by means of capacious underground 
sewers in all directions, emptying themselves into the Thames, the whole town (with 
some discreditable exceptions in the humbler and more remote class of streets) is 
well drained and cleared from superficial impurities. On account of the want of 
stone here, as in many other places in England, brick is the only material employed 
in building. London is therefore a brick-built town. To a stranger, it appears to 
consist of an interminable series of streets of moderate width, composed of dingy red 
brick houses, which are commonly four stories in height, and seldom less than three. 
The greater proportion of the dwellings are small. Tliey are mere slips of buildings, 
containing, in most instances, only two small rooms on the floor, one behind the 



LONDON. 335 

other, often with a wide door of communication between, and a wooden stair, with 
balustrades, from bottom to top of the house. It is only in the more fashionable 
districts of the town that the houses have sunk areas with railings; in all the business 
parts, they stand close upon the pavements, so that trade may be conducted with the 
utmost facility and convenience. Every street possesses a smooth flagged pavement at 
the sides for foot passengers ; while the central parts of the thoroughfares are cause- 
wayed with square hard stones, or paved in some other way equally suited to endure 
the prodigious tear and wear created by the horses and vehicles passing along them. 

In the central and many other principal streets of London, the ground stories of the 
houses are generally used as shops or warehouses. When the object is retail traffic, 
the whole range of front is usually formed into door and window, so as to show goods 
to the best advantage to the passengers. The exhibition of goods in the London shop 
windows is one of the greatest wonders of the place. Everything which the appetite 
can desire, or the fancy imagine, would appear there to be congregated. In every 
other city there is an evident meagerness in the quantity and assortments ; but here 
there is the most remarkable abundance, and that not in isolated spots, but along the 
sides of thoroughfares miles in length. In whatever way the eye is turned, this ex- 
traordinary amount of mercantile wealth is strikingly observable ; even in what ap- 
pear obscure alleys or courts, the abundance of goods is found to be on a greater scale 
than in any provincial town. 

The flowing of the Thames from west to east through the metropolis, has given 
a general direction to the lines of streets ; the principal thoroughfares are in some 
measure parallel to the river, with the inferior, or at least shorter streets branching 
from them. Intersecting the town lengthwise, or from east to west, are two great 
leading thoroughfares at a short distance from each other, but gradually diverging at 
their western extremity. One of these routes begins in the eastern environs, near Black- 
wall, proceeds along Whitechapel, Leadenhall street, Cornhill, Cheapside, New- 
gate street, Skinner street, Holborn, and Oxford street. The other may be considered 
as starting at London bridge, and passing up King William street into Cheapside, at 
the end of which it makes a bend round St. Paul's churchyard, thence proceeds down 
Ludgate hill, along Fleet street and the Strand to Charing Cross, where it sends a 
branch off to the left to Whitehall, and another to the right, called Cockspur street, 
which leads forward into Pall-Mail, and sends a shoot up Regent street into Piccadilly, 
which proceeds westward to Hyde Park Corner. These are the main lines in the me- 
tropolis, and are among the first traversed by strangers. It will be observed that the 
main channels unite in Cheapside, which therefore becomes an excessively crowded 
thoroughfare, particularly in the early part of the day. The main cross branches in 
the metropolis are — Farringdon street, leading from the opening to Blackfriars bridge, 
at the foot of Ludgate hill, to Holborn ; the Haymarket, leading from Cockspur 
street ; and Regent street, already mentioned. There are several large streets lead- 
ing northward from the Holborn and Oxford street line. The principal one, in the 
east, is St. Martin le Grand and Aldersgate street, which communicates with the 
great north road. It is a matter of general complaint, that there are so few great 
channels of communication through London both lengthwise and crosswise; for the 
inferior streets, independently of their complex bearings, are much too narrow for 
regular traffic. According to the accounts last taken, the entire metropolis contained 
thirteen thousand nine hundred and thirty-six separate streets, squares, courts, alleys, 
&c, each with a distinct name. Oxford street, the longest in London, is two thousand 
three hundred and four yards in length, and numbers two hundred and twenty-five 
houses on each side. 

Without particular reference to municipal distinctions, London may be divided 
into four principal portions — the city, which is the centre, and where the greatest 
part of the business is conducted ; the east end, in which is the port for shipping ; 
the west end, or Westminster, in which are the palaces of the queen and royal 
family, the houses of parliament, Westminster abbey, and the residences of the 
nobility and gentry ; the Surrey division, lying on the south side of the Thames, and 
containing many manufacturing establishments and dwellings of private families. 
Besides these, the northern suburbs, which include the once detached villages of 
Stoke Newington, Islington, Hoxton, St. Pancras, Pentonville, Somer's Town, and 
Paddington, and consist chiefly of private dwellings for the mercantile and higher 
classes, may be considered a peculiar and distinct division., It is, however, nowhere 
possible to say exactly where any one division begins or ends. Throughout the vast 






336 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

compass of the city and suburbs, there is a blending of one division with those 
contiguous to it. In the business parts there are lines or clusters of neat dwellings, 
and in the parts devoted to retirement there are seen indications of business. The 
outskirts on all sides comprise long rows or groups of detached villas, with ornamental 
flower-plots ; and houses of this attractive kind proceed in some directions so far out 
of town, that there seems no getting beyond them into the country. From the Surrey 
division there extend southward and westward a great number of these streets of neat 
private houses, as, for instance, toward Walworth, Kennington, Clapham, Brixton, 
&c. ; and in these directions lie some of the most pleasant spots in the environs of 
the metropolis. The suburban streets are only macadamised, and possess gravel side 
paths. We shall now proceed to describe this splendid city in detail. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
THE MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT OF THE METROPOLIS. 

If we draw a line from north to south, running down through Holborn and the 
Strand, we shall have London tolerably accurately divided, with reference to its 
grand characteristics of being the central seat of government, legislation, and law, 
and an emporium for the commerce of the world. On the west side of this line lie 
the palaces, the houses of parliament, the chief courts of justice, the great govern- 
ment offices, the parks, and the splendid squares and streets which are the external 
types of the presence of royalty and the court, and all the rank, and wealth, and 
fashion, which ohigregate around them. On the east side lie the " city" — a small 
kernel in a large shell — the docks, and the port, and their enormous accumulations. 
The boundaries of the "city" have no external indications (except Temple bar, at 
the end of Fleet street), by which the stranger may be able to mark it out from the 
m ;s.s which hems it round. It may be defined as lying along the Thames from 
Temple bar to the Tower ; from the Tower the boundary-line runs up in an irregular 
manner (describing a figure somewhat approaching to a semicircle) through the 
heart of a dense population. The city, therefore, is like a bent bow, of which the 
Thames is the cord. But though Soulhwark and Lambeth — each of them having a 
population sufficient to make a large city — are not within the limits of the " city," 
which do not cross the river, they are peculiarly its appendages and adjuncts. South- 
wark is under the same municipal regulations as the city. Within the city limits 
lie St. Paul's, the general postoffice, the bank of England, the royal exchange, the 
East India house, the Mansion-house, and Guildhall. 

Let us station ourselves at the Mansion-house, the palace of the civic monarch, the 
lord-mayor. Here is a busy and important thoroughfare. Opposite is the massive 
pile of the bank : beside it the agitating scene of the exchange. There is an inces- 
sant throng ; and if a bar were laid across the street for five minutes, the throng 
would swell into a crowd, and from a crowd into a mob. But no riots, no disturb- 
ances arise. Peace reigns — if such a term be not inappropriate to a scene where, 
from morning till night, thnre is a perpetual confusion of sounds. 

What salt of life preserves such a body ? Does the king of the city, keeping his 
state within this mansion, hold the reins of government with a firm and vigorous hand, 
and is his very name a terror to the evil-doers ? 

In London generally, applying the name to the whole extent of the metropolis, 
there are about two millions of people. Numbers of this population have grown up, 
and are growing up, in habits and inclinations which are, unfortunately, more or less 
opposed to security and order. With such a reflection, it is really marvellous to see 
how life and property are so completely protected. As to life, it is perfectly secure ; 
for the murders an^ manslaughters which are produced by sudden outbreaks of 
drunken or malignant passion, or the aberrations of intellect, are rare in occurrence, 
and could hardly be restrained by the most perfectly-devised police system. And as 
to robbery, it scarcely enters into any man's thoughts, when he walks about, that he 



LONDON. 



337 




338 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

will be deprived of his property by violence. Craft, cunning, imposition, subterfuge, 
are the prime characteristics of London robbery. The master may be robbed by his 
dishonest servant; the eager tradesman, anxious to " do business," may be imposed 
upon by the well-dressed or plausible swindler ; the simpleton, staring about the 
Streets, or enjoying himself in what to him may be a new scene, a London public- 
house, may have his vanity excited by artful conversation, be tempted to show how 
much money he can produce, and in having it carefully put up for him, get brown 
paper or coppers substituted for bank-notes or gold ; and the imprudent or the thought- 
less, by throwing themselves in the way of temptation, may lose property intrusted 
Jo them, and with it, perhaps, their own characters. But the prudent individual may 
walk about even the worst parts of London by night without danger, unless it be that 
of having his pocket picked. Yet there are nests of misery and crime in London, 
the inspection of which by day would give to such an assertion the appearance of 
being very improbable. The mazes of the Seven Dials, the far-famed district of St. 
Giles, crowded with a half-English half-Irish population, Tothill street, leading up 
from Westminster abbey, and all the narrow streets and lanes which lie along the 
Thames below London bridge, present a startling contrast to the stateliness and 
grandeur of many of the streets of the " west end." Yet in these places the pedes- 
trian is as safe as in the crowded thoroughfares of Cheapside, Fleet street, the Strand, 
Holborn, or Piccadilly, at least by day ; the only difference being, that he may see 
much that may move his pity or offend his taste. Not even the long narrow lane 
.which runs up from the bottom of Holborn hill (known as Field lane and Saffron 
,hill), which has for many a day borne a most notorious character, and the very sight 
of which, to a timid stranger, as he gazes at its narrow entrance, has a suspicious 
and deterring effect, dares to uphold its bad pre-eminence of being able to beard the 
law. All this security is obtained by the police. 

. The "city" of London, in virtue of its privileges manages its own police. The 
lord-mayor and aldermen, as such, are the police magistrates within the city limits. 
The lord-mayor presides generally at the Mansion-house, and an alderman at Guild- 
hall. The other parts of London have police justice administered to them by 
.stipendiarv magistrates, at different police offices, which were established by govern- 
ment in 1792. 

The present day police of the city of London was established in 1832. In 1833 
it amounted to one hundred individuals; but including superior officers, such as mar- 
shals and marshals' men, &c, it amounted to one hundred and twenty. There were 
two marshals and six marshals' men. The upper marshal receives a yearly salary of 
£540, the under £450. Each marshal's man has about £130 a* year, exclusive of 
fees for warrants and summonses. 

In addition to the day police, the total number of watchmen and other persons 
employed in the several wards of the city of London, was, in 1833, ordinary watch- 
men, five hundred; superintending watchmen, sixty-five; patrolling watchmen, 
ninety-one; and beadles, fifty- four: total, seven hundred and ten. The number of 
men on duty at twelve o'clock at night, as stated in 1833, was within the city, three 
hundred and eighty. The day police is appointed and paid by. the corporation, out 
of the corporation funds; the total expense, in 1832, was£9,006. The sums ordered 
to be raised and levied within the different wards, by authority of the mayor, alder- 
men, and commons of the city, in common council assembled, for the support of the 
eight watch, was, in 1827, £34,700 ; in 1833, £42,077. Though still under the man- 
agement of the different wards, the night watch has been greatly improved within 
these few years by the substitution of able young men for the aged and often decrepit 
creatures to whom the Guardianship of our streets was formerly intrusted, and who 
were frequently appointed out of mere charity. 

To this police may be added the ward constables. These are elected at the differ- 
ent wardmotes, chiefly on St. Thomas's day. But these constables, who were prin- 
cipally relied on, before the recent alteration of our police, for the preservation of 
the public peace during the day, do not act, unless directed by a magistrate to exe- 
cute a particular duty. On public occasions, the lord-mayor has power to collect 
jthetn all together. The inhabitant householders are liable, in their turn, to serve the 
office of constable. Those to whom the duty is onerous, endeavor to excuse them- 
selves or procure a substitute to serve for them. The number of principal, substitute, 
and extra constables, in 1831, was four hundred and eight; in 1S32, four hundred 
and nine; and in 1833, it was three hundred and ninety-eight. The falling off was 



LONDON, 



339 




340 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

attributed to the establishment of the day police in the city, their services dispensing 
in some measure with those of the ward constables. 

The following is a list of the different police establishments which still exist in 
the metropolis, in addition to the new police : Bow street, including the horse patrol, 
which watch the roads leading from the metropolis to a distance of from ten to six- 
teen miles; Marlborough street ; Ha tton garden ; Worship street; Lambeth street; 
High street, Marylebone ; Queen square ; Union hall ; Thames police ; city of Lon- 
don police. The nine police offices, however, maintain each only a subordinate num- 
ber of constables, immediately attendant on the magistrates — the new police being 
generally ministrative to them, though, of course, under the control and authority of 
the commissioners, whose office is in Scotland yard. We can, therefore, say, in a 
correct sense, that there are but three police bodies in London — the new, the city, and 
the Thames police. 

The origin of the Thames police may be ascribed directly to Mr. Colquhoun, 
though, of course, the necessity that existed for protection to the shipping in the port 
of London was the primary cause. In Mr. Colquhoun 's treatise on the " Commerce 
and Police of the River Thames," he describes the exposed state of the immense prop- 
erty annually arriving in the river, and the systematic depredation carried on by rivei 
pirates, night plunderers, aided by receivers, journeymen coopers, and other tradesmen, 
as well as the crews and mates of vessels, and revenue officers. The character of 
the watermen was at this time very bad. Then there were lower grades among this 
great combination of thieves : mud-larks, so denominated because they ostensibly 
gained a livelihood by grubbing in the mud of the Thames at low water for matters 
lost or thrown overboard, but who were in reality dangerous assistants to the thieves; 
rat-catchers, who, under pretence of clearing a ship of vermin, availed themselves 
of opportunities for plunder, &c, &c. 

The limits of the jurisdiction of the Thames police extends, upon the Thames, so 
far as the river runs between the counties of Middlesex and Surrey, Essex and Kent ; 
but the common supervision of the river is confined to the busy parts of the river, 
from Greenwich to a little above Westminster : occasionally the boats go lower and 
higher. 

There are twenty-one surveyors on the establishment of the Thames police, each 
of whom has charge of a boat and three men while on duty. The surveyors, having 
cause to suspect that any felony has been or is about to be committed on board any 
ship, are authorized to enter at all times, by night or day, for the purposes of detec- 
tion or prevention. They frequently board vessels newly arrived, and after cargoes 
have been discharged ; they go into the docks and board vessels there ; they interfere 
in smuggling cases that come to their knowledge, being themselves officers of the 
customs ; and they have also to see that certain regulations are observed by vessels 
in port, such as not having more than a limited quantity of gunpowder on board. 

Let us suppose a person apprehended by the police for a crime alleged to have 
been committed in London, and carried before the magistrates of one of the metro- 
politan police offices. These police magistrates can punish summarily, by inflicting 
a fine or a short imprisonment ; they may remand the prisoner for further inquiry, or 
they may admit to bail. In our supposed case, the evidence appears to the magis- 
trates sufficient to warrant the sending of the case before a superior tribunal ; the 
prisoner can not procure bail, or the magistrates refuse to take it ; he is committed 
to Newgate, and the witnesses are bound over to give their testimony on the trial. 

The street called the Old Bailey strikes off from Ludgate hill, and terminates at 
the intersection of Newgate street and Skinner street. The continuation of the Old 
Bailey is called Giltspur street, which leads into Smithfield. The city wall ran 
along here from Ludgate to Newgate. The Newgate appears to have been made a 
place of custody at least as early as the beginning of the thirteenth century ; and the 
name has been applied to every successive structure that has occupied the site. 

About the middle of the Old Bailey street commences the extensive range of build- 
ings which form the courts of justice and the prison. The prison, a* massive and 
frowning structure, occupies the end of the Old Bailey, and turns up Newgate street. 
The present building was erected in the place of a previous one which had been re- 
built after the great fire of London, and had been found totally inadequate to its pur- 
poses. 

Newgate has a wide-spread notoriety, not merely as the head-jail of London, and 
from the remarkable names and deeds associated with it, but from the labors of phi- 



I I, LONDON...., ;, > ": ; 



•341 




342 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

lanthropists. It has lain in the heart of this great city like some foul and undrained 
marsh, into which all the waters of corruption were poured. It has ever been a fer- 
tile nursery of crime. From within its walls physical as well as moral contagion 
has issued, and spread disease in most noxious and aggravated forms. The jail- 
distemper has more than once struck down the functionaries who appeared at the 
Old Bailey sessions, as well as the prisoners themselves. 

Among all who have labored to alleviate the miseries of Newgate, the honored name 
of Mrs. Fry must not be overlooked. To give a proper idea of the state of the prison 
when she began her labors would require statements unfit for our pages ; but the 
following extract from Mrs. Fry's evidence before a committee of the house of com- 
mons, in 1818, will give the reader a faint notion of the moral courage and patience 
which this excellent woman must have possessed to enable her to pursue her self- 
chosen avocation : — 

"About what time was it when ycu first visited Newgate, and established a com- 
mittee of ladies to visit the female prisoners ? — It is rather more than a year. It is 
rather more than a yoar since I first established a school for the children of the con- 
vict ; ; I did not undertake the care of the convicts till about two months afterward ; 
their children first attracted my attention. 

" Have the goodness to relate what you did with regard to the children. In visit- 
ing the prison, which I had been occasionally in the habit of doing for several years, 
I very much lamented to see children so much exposed among those very wicked 
women, and I understood that the first language they lisped was generally oaths or 
very bad expressions ; it therefore struck me, how important it would be to separate 
them from the convicts, and to have them put in a small apartment by themselves, 
under the care of a schoolmistress, provided it met with the approbation of the 
women themselves, for I always approved acting in concert with them in whatever 
I did. I represented my views to the mothers, and they with tears in their eyes said, 
1 Oh, how thankful we would be for it ;' for they knew so much the miseries of vice, 
that they hoped their children would never be trained up in it. It was in our first 
visits to the school, where we some of us attended almost every day, that we were 
witnesses to the dreadful proceedings that went forward on the female side of the 
prison — the begging, swearing, gaming, fighting, singing, dancing. The scenes are 
too bad to be described, so that we did not think it suitable to admit young persons 
with us." 

"As a proof of the want of classification," Mrs. Fry says, in another portion of her 
evidence, " women who came in weeping over their deviations — some small devia- 
tion perhaps — by the time of their trial or dismissal would sometimes become so 
barefaced and w' :ked as to laugh at the very same things, and to be fitted for almost 
any crime. I understand, that before we went into the prison it was considered i 
reproach to be a modest woman." 

We have already said that the prison is a very different place from what it was 
let us, therefore, venture in. We shall find the officers, from the governor do wr, 
ward, civil, attentive, and obliging. Ascending a few steps, and expressing a wis/ 
to see the boys' ward, we are conducted through a dark labyrinthine passage, and 
on mounting a stair, the merry shouts that we hear seem to proceed from the play 
ground of a school. Here are two rooms — one the schoolroom by day and sleeping 
room by night, the other the day-room. In the latter, about fifteen or sixteen boy* 
are tumbling about at play. A well-known voice calls out, " Stand around !" but tht 
quick eyes of the youngsters tell them that the strangers are not official visiters ; and 
they therefore come forward, bobbing their heads, or rather pulling them down by the 
front locks, and boisterously elbowing each other as they fall into line. An almost 
indistinct murmur, however, lets them know the extent of their discretion, and they 
stand quiet. " That boy," pointing to a child of about ten or eleven years of age, " is 
under sentence of death !" In a moment, the little creature feels himself the object 
of greatest importance in the group, and his look evinces it. 

" Does the course taken with young offenders operate as a punishment sufficient 
in its nature to deter them from crime ? — Certainly not. A boy affects to cry at the 
bar, and his mother or some relation will cry with him, and the judge gives him a 
little lecture, and sends him home ; or sometimes they inflict a whipping, but that is 
made a matter of laughter among these young rascals after becoming inured to a 
jail." " I think, if the boy is under twelve years of age, when the mind is hardly 



LONDON. 343 

formed, it is too mucn to send him for trial at the Old Bailey, and thus, whether found 
guilty or not, consign him to infamy for life." 

Let us pass now from the boys' ward to that of the men's. Here they are loung- 
ing about the day-room ; but at the command of "Stand around!" they fall into line 
for inspection with a quieter promptness than did the boys — one or two with a sullen 
scowl, some with an easy indifference, others with a half-kind of smile, as if not so 
much accustomed to the discipline. They are mostly young men, from sixteen years 
of age to twenty-five. The greater part of these individuals have probably come 
through the first part of their apprenticeship in crime, and are now rising into life 
with seared hearts, depraved and almost irreclaimable habits, and their intellectual 
powers exercised in nothing but the dexterity and meanness of theft. 

The plan of Newgate is quadrangular. The untried prisoners are kept separate 
from the tried, and the young from the old. It was built originally without sleeping 
cells for separate confinement, except the condemned cells : the number of night- 
rooms is thirty-three, in each of which there are at night from fifteen to thirty per- 
sons ; the number of day-rooms, or wards, is ten ; one hundred and twenty-nine 
sleeping cells might be got by dividing these large rooms, but four hundred and 
sixty-two additional cells would still be wanting, for which the prison affords no 
space. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
LAW COURTS. 

The law courts are somewhat scattered about London. The superior courts of 
common law and equity are indeed to be found together at Westminster hall ; and 
their vicinity to the houses of the legislature, as well as the hall itself, gives them a 
fitting air of propriety, and even of dignity. But, on the other hand, if the attraction 
of a license or a legacy induces the stranger to inquire for the ecclesiastical courts, 
he must literally search for Doctors' commons. Both Westminster hall and Doctors' 
commons are in the neighborhood of our two great ecclesiastical edifices — the abbey 
and St. Paul's. But even when the stranger is in St. Paul's churchyard, he must ask 
for Doctors*'commons ! He must seek for it in those narrow streets that run down 
the slope of the hill on which stands the mighty pile — too near us, hemmed in, and 
clustered round, to make us feel sufficiently the influence of masses of stone heaped 
together by the hand of genius. Then the court of bankruptcy must be sought for in 
Basinghall street, in the "city," and the court for the relief of insolvents in Portugal 
street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. The courts of requests — courts which can give sum- 
mary relief in civil actions for small amounts — are, properly enough, distributed in 
different parts of London. These courts are interesting places — the vast number of 
cases perpetually arising in such a population as that of London fills them with busi- 
ness. The Marshalsea and palace courts are in Scotland yard, near Charing cross. 
These courts have jurisdiction over all personal actions arising within the verge of 
the palace, that is, within twelve miles of Whitehall, excepting the " city" of 
London. 

It is not alone from considerations connected with the past that Westminster hall 
is an object of interest. Here is the head and fountain of those judicial institutions 
under which England has shot up to greatness — institutions planned at a distant 
time, by a rude people, under widely-different circumstances from those in which 
we live — institutions which administer laws full of apparent anomalies, but which 
have furnished the form and pattern of judicial institutions now incorporated with 
the habits and feelings of millions of people in some of the fairest parts of the globe. 
English forms of law and judicial administration prevail throughout a great nation, 
whose dominion stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans ; they are to be 
found in her colonies in every latitude ; they are taking root in the empire rising in 
the southern seas. 



344 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

The first three courts as we enter the hall are, the king's bench, the common pleas, 
and the exchequer. These courts issued out of one, and, in the lapse of time, they 
have come to be, for nearly all practical intents and purposes, one court again. The 
king's bench, indeed, retains a portion of its ancient superiority in its jurisdiction over 
all inferior tribunals — it can bring a criminal from any inferior court in England into 
its own, and there deal with him as law and justice may demand. In the exchequer 
a l so — the judges of which are termed barons, and the chief the lord chief baron — all 
revenue cases are still tried ; but the great mass of all civil suits may be brought in- 
discriminately into any of the three courts, and the fifteen judges (until 1830 there 
were only twelve) are the head expounders and administrators of the statute and 
common law, dispensing it in their courts at Westminster hall, and over the entire 
kingdom in their circuits. 

There are four terms in each year during which the courts are open at West- 
minster hall. These are Hilary, Easter, Trinity, and Michaelmas terms The three 
courts — king's bench, common pleas, and exchequer — determine questions of law 
during term time. The sittings after term are generally employed in deciding 
causes before special and common juries. The "city" of London has the privilege 
of having its nisi prius, or jury, cases tried at Guildhall. 

The " high court of chancery" is divided into three courts — the court of the lord 
chancellor, the court of the master of the rolls, and the court of the vice-chancellor. 
The special "interference of the king, as the fountain of justice, was. frequently 
sought against the decisions of the courts of law, where they worked injustice ; and 
also in matters which were not cognizable in the ordinary courts, or in which, from 
the maintenance or pr Section afforded to his adversary, the petitioner was unable 
to obtain redress. The jurisdiction with which the chancellor is invested had its 
origin in this portion of discretionary power, which was retained by the king on the 
establishment of courts of justice. The exercise of those powers in modern times 
is scarcely, if at all, less circumscribed and hemmed in by rule and precedent than 
the strict jurisdiction of the courts of law. The decisions of former lord-chancel- 
lors, and the customs and practices which sprung up in the courts, have created a 
body of equity law in very much the same way that the body of the common law 
was created. And thus the law of England is divided into two great branches of 
common law and equity law, each having their forms, rules, and precedents, accord- 
ing to which the judges regulate their decisions. The court of exchequer has what 
is termed its equity side as well as its common law side. 

Next in rank to the lord chancellor in the court of chancery is the master of the 
rolls ; he is chief of the masters in chancery, and derives his name from being 
keeper or guardian of the chancery rolls or records. During term-time the chan- 
cery judges sit at Westminster hall ; on other occasions, the lord chancellor in Lin- 
coln's Inn hall, the vice-chancellor in a court near it, the master of the rolls in his 
court in Chancery lane, and one of the barons of the court of exchequer, as an equity 
judge, in Gray's Inn hall. * 

The court of bankruptcy was established in the beginning of the reign of Wil- 
liam IV. Its name implies the nature of its business. It is subdivided into three 
courts — the court of review, with a chief judge and two puisne judges. The com- 
missioners of bankruptcy are six in number. 

The court for the relief of insolvent debtors is presided over by three judges, 
termed commissioners, one of whom sits twice a week in London the whole year 
through, and they also make circuits over England. 

We have hardly space to enter into any detail respecting the ecclesiastical courts. 
Their jurisdiction takes cognizance of wills, and administration of personal property 
— of causes for separation and nullity of marriage, of suits respecting church-rates 
and churches, of cases respecting church discipline, connected either with clergy or 
laity, &c, 8cc. The advocates practising or presiding in these courts are an incor- 
porated body, forming a college, the number being limited. They are all doctors oi 
law. A proctor is an ecclesiastical attorney or solicitor. 

In Doctors' commons is also the admiralty court. Its criminal business is given 
to the central criminal court, but it has an extensive jurisdiction in'civil admiralty 
causes. 

The courts of law can not be dismissed without slightly noticing the metropolitan 
prisons for debtors connected with them. The king's bench prison lies across the 
river in Southwark. It occupies an extensive space of ground ; and the tall and 



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346 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WAXES. 




Lincoln's Inn Gateway, in Chancery Lane. 

dusky walls that surround it give it a very gloomy external appearance. But inside 
it has the appearance of being not a prison, but one of those prison-looking places, 
a fortified town. It contains shops, stalls, and public-houses, "for the supply of its 
somewhat numerous population. This prison, and that of the Fleet, may be termed 
the head prisons of England for the incarceration of debtors — for debtors can pro- 
cure themselves to be removed (at some expense) from any other prison to either of 
these two. Each of these also has a certain space outside the prison, under the 
name of Rules, in which debtors who can afford to pay certain fees, and give 
security, are allowed to reside — and it may be easily imagined that those who can 
do so are not always to be found precisely within the precincts of the Rules. It has 
been long a maxim of the common law that a debtor must answer with his body, if 
he can not or will not with his purse — but we are doubtless drawing nearer to a better 
time, and to a more humane — nay, to a more self-interested application and under- 
standing of the law of debtor and creditor. The king's bench prison is the place of 
confinement where the court of king's bench has been in the habit of committing 
its prisoners, such as those guilty of "contempt" toward it, and many of those who 
have been sentenced by it to imprisonment for libel. 

The Marshalsea, or palace court, has also a prison for debtors in Southwark, 
which, until within these few years past, was a shocking place of confinement. It 
has been re-edified and improved. 

The Fleet prison lies in Farringdon street, near the bottom of Ludgate hill. This 
prison was erected in the place of the old Fleet prison, which was destroyed in the 
riots of 1780, and which was so notorious for its " Fleet marriages." The Fleet is 
the prison to which the courts of chancery, common pleas, and exchequer, commit 
for "contempt." 



LONDON. 



347 




?48 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

CHAPTER XXV 

LEGISLATION AND GOVERNMENT. 

The legislation of the British kingdom is intrusted to two bodies, the house o! 
lords andlhe house of commons. They meet in different places, and their proceed- 
ings are generally attractive. 

The ceremony of the queen going in person to parliament to open the session is 
an interesting one. The queen also generally closes the session ; and sometimes, 
though very rarely, she goes down during its continuance to give assent to bills, or 
for some special purpose ; but the opening of the session, being a time of greatest 
expectation, is generally regarded with most interest. The approach of the queen is 
announced by successive salutes or ordnance in St. James' park and at the tower. 
If the weather is fine, there is usually a large assemblage to witness the procession. 
The interior of the house of lords presents a brilliant and animated scene, the 
peers being in their robes, and a large number of ladies being present, either 
peeresses in their own right, or the wives, daughters, or other relations of peers. 

If the visiter has entered the strangers' gallery of the house of commons, with- 
out knowing the subjects on which the house will proceed to business, and if he 
sits down, expecting, as a matter of course, that there will be a grand oratorical dis- 
play, a keen encounter of wit, and all the excitement of a brilliant assembly, he 
will very frequently meet with a complete disappointment. Even on what are 
termed " field-nights," patience is considerably tried. If you can not make interest 
to get introduced into the reserved seats outside the bar, on the floor of the house, 
and below the strangers' gallery, you must then, if a strong debate is expected, take 
your station at an early hour on the gallery stairs, and wait with patience ; you may 
be admitted when the speaker is at prayers. He, the chaplain, and the clerks, are 
kneeling at the table ; there are but five or six members present ; and though the 
gallery is nearly crowded, and you have secured a front seat, an apprehension steals 
over you that the required number, forty, will not arrive in time to make a house- 
But the members are dropping in ; the speaker begins to count slowly and de- 
liberately ; he arrives at thirty-nine, and then takes the chair. The debate, how- 
ever will not begin immediately. You must wait two or three hours for that. In 
the meantime a variety of motions and business of a formal nature is gone through, 
the half of which only reaches your ear. There appears to be an apprehension that 
a division will take place on some private bill — that the words " Strangers, with- 
draw !" will be pronounced, and that you will be dislodged from your position. 

A message from the lords ! The form of proposing and assenting to the admission 
of the messenger is through so quickly and so quietly as almost to escape attention. 
Straightway a gentleman in full dress emerges from beneath the gallery, where he 
has made a profound bow; advancing to the middle of the floor, he bows again; 
and on reaching the table he bows a third time. On delivering his message, he 
retreats, walking backward with a dexterity that amuses the stranger, and bows 
three times as he did on advancing. ' This is the Usher of the Black Rod, come to 
summon the speaker and the house to hear the royal assent given by commission to 
certain bills. The sergeant-at-arms, who is dressed with a bag-wig, and sword by 
his side, takes up the mace and marches before the speaker ; a few members follow, 
but the rest remain. Now the strangers pent up in the little gallery may avail them- 
selves of their privilege — the speaker and the mace are gone, and there is therefore 
"no house;" they may stand up, stretch themselves, and talk, without fear of a re- 
buke or a frown from the attendants. The speaker returns, takes the chair, the 
mace is laid on the table, and he reports to the house the bills that have become acts 
by receiving the final sanction of the legislature. 

On another occasion we may see the sergeant-at-arms take up the mace, and go to 
meet two individuals in gowns and wigs, with whom he advances, all three bowing 
as did the Usher of the Black Rod. These are masters in chancery, who are the 
usual messengers of the house ef lords, bringing down certain bills to which the 
assent of the commons is requested. 



LONDON. 



34& 




350 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

The house is now crowded, and the member who brings on the important subject 
of the evening rises to make his statement. His majesty's ministers and their sup- 
porters always occupy the range of benches on the right hand of the speaker. The 
opposition occupy the left. When the opening speech is finished, which has probably 
been long, full of facts, and, it may be, important, but consisting chiefly "of dry details 
and figures, a large portion of members rise to quit the house ; the voice of the suc- 
ceeding speaker is nearly drowned in the noise of footsteps and slamming of doors, 
and it is sometimes a considerable period before he can be distinctly heard. All 
members bow to the chair on entering, and on going out are supposed not to turn 
their backs on it. The debate goes on — now swelling into noble sounds — now falling 
off in tedious episodes ; and by the time the occupant of the front seat of the strangers' 
gallery has sat from four till twelve, or later, he will confess that, however exciting 
the subject — however grand the associations connected with this political arena, 
presenting as it does in combination some of the cleverest and the most influential 
men of the empire — however wonderful it is to see those note-takers carefully and 
accurately reporting the outline of the debate, facts, figures, and all, and with the 
machinery with which they are in connexion, giving the world an opportunity of 
being present — still, to sit out an important debate in the house of commons is a 
very fatiguing thing. 

None can carry a message from the house of commons to the house of lords but 
members ; the house of lords has specific messengers of its own to convey its com- 
munications to the commons. The messengers of the house of commons are merely 
the servants of the sergeant-at-arms, who is the head of the household establishment, 
and has the responsibility and care of the house, under the speaker. 

When a bill or message is to be carried from the commons to the lords, a member 
is appointed to take it ; and as the practice is that at least eight members must go 
up, the speaker addresses the house, desiring it to follow its messenger. If the bill 
is an important one, a large number of members usually accompany the messenger. 
The Usher of the Black Rod informs the house of peers of the presence of the mes- 
sengers; when they are admitted, the Black Rod, as he is abbreviatingly termed, 
places himself at their head, and the lord chancellor, or whoever is chairman at the 
time, comes down to the bar to receive the message. Three obeisances are made on 
entering and retiring. 

The house of lords has a different appearance from the house of commons. Both 
are neatly fitted up, but the lords has a richer and more stately appearance. The 
visiter may have entered during the day, when it is sitting as the highest court of 
justice in the empire, and judgment on some case may be delivering. This may be 
done at considerable length, either by the lord chancellor, who is sitting in his official 
costume, or by one of the law lords occupying the benches. If it be one of the latter, 
the stranger's notions may be somewhat startled at seeing him in plain clothes — for 
the novice is apt to associate robes and stars with his idea of the appearance of a 
peer in his place in parliament. But peers only wear their robes on great occasions. 
The bishops, however, always wear their clerical robes. W hen judgment is deliver- 
ed, the strangers, mingled with the counsel in the space below the bar, fall back 
toward the wall, forming a semicircle ; the next case is called, the attendant mes- 
senger exclaims " counsel," and the barristers conducting the case advance, bowing 
three times ; one of them then ascends the step at the bar (on which the speaker of 
the house of commons stands when he and the house are summoned) and opens the 
proceeding in an easy colloquial tone. The short-hand writer of the house takes his 
notes at the bar. The gallery for strangers and reporters when the house sits legis- 
latively occupies a similar position to the strangers' gallery in the house of commons, 
beuig over the entrance, above the bar. 

At a little distance from the houses of parliament, lie some of the principal govern- 
ment offices. A wide spacious street, but not perfectly straight, termed Whitehall, 
stretches from the end of Parliament street (which is a continuation of Whitehall), 
to Charing Cross. A narrow inlet, bearing the far-famed named of Downing street 
— it should be termed Downing place, for it is not a thoroughfaie — runs up from the 
bottom of Whitehall. Here are the official residences of the first lord of the treasury, 
the chancellor of the exchequer, the officers of the foreign and colonial secretaries of 
state, Sec. From the entrance of Downing street a handsome new range of building 
extends along Whitehall, presenting a fine front to the street, which is stated to hav 
been copied from the temple of Jupiter Stator at Rome. This is appropriated to the 



LONDON. 



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352 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

board of trade and the privy council, &c. Beyond this, and joining it, is the old 
building of the Treasury, in which the home office is also placed ; higher up is the 
Horse Guards ; nearly opposite it is the building termed Whitehall, which has given 
name to the street ; above the Horse Guards, nearer to Charing Cross, is the Ad- 
miralty ; and opposite, in Scotland yard, are a variety of subordinate government 
offices. 

St. James's park, and the Horse Guards' parade in front of it, lie at the back of 
Downing street, the Treasury, the Horse Guards, and the Admiralty. The engraving 
represents these buildings from the park. There is an arched passage through the 
Horse Guards from Whitehall into the Parade. Here between ten and eleven in the 
morning, the animated scene exhibited in the engraving is presented. 

The extensive and important business of the executive government requires a 
minute subdivision of labor, the employment of many offices and numerous function- 
aries. To attempt to gather an idea of the extent of the business transacted from 
an inspection of the exterior of Downing street and Whitehall would be but an idle 
effort ; yet to describe particularly each office would only tempt the reader to exclaim 

" Grove answer grove ; each alley has its brother, 
And half the platform but reflects the other." 

However different the nature of the various employments may be, there must be a 
similarity in all — the Horse Guards alone, from its military air and character, break- 
ing the uniformity. 

The treasury is the head of the executive. The prime minister is always the first 
lord of the treasury — for the first title is merely honorary, given to him from the rank 
which he takes as head of the government : the second title is the virtual one. The 
second lord of the treasury is always the chancellor of the exchequer ; but when it 
happens that the prime minister is a commoner, he sometimes takes both the post 
of first lord and chancellor of the exchequer — for the latter must be a member of the 
commons, and the government appointments are usually distributed so as to secure 
as equal a propui ion of ministers as possible in both houses of parliament. There 
are four junior lords of the treasury, two secretaries, an assistant secretary, two 
solicitors, and a number of clerks. The treasury has the control of the mint, the 
customs, the excise, the stamps and taxes, the postoffice, the management of the 
national debt, &c. 

The duties of the chancellor of the exchequer are of a momentous kind. They 
give him cognizance of the entire revenue of the empire. His "budget," as it is 
termed, is an annual exposition to the house of commons and the nation of the 
amount of taxes gathered from every source, the expenditure of that money, and 
whether a necessity or an opportunity has arisen for the imposition of a new tax, or 
the reduction of an old one. 

The names of the three secretaries of state indicate their several duties. There 
would appear, at first sight, a great difference in the weight of their respective func- 
tions. The home secretary, we might say, having such a small department as that 
of Great Britain to attend to, and that, too, chiefly as regards the administration of 
justice and police, can not be so heavily pressed as he who has to watch foreign 
nations, control ambassadors, look to nearly two hundred consular stations in different 
parts of the world, and otherwise guard the foreign interests ; or the colonial secre- 
tary, presiding over the wide-spread empire in every quarter of the globe. 

The board of trade has its president, secretaries, and various departmental clerks ; 
the office of Woods and Forests its commissioners ; the exchequer its comptroller 
accountants, &c. ; and the board of control its president and commissioners. The 
office of the board of control lies over from Whitehall, in a lane called Cannon Row, 
not far from Westminster bridge. Its business is to superintend and control the 
governing functions of the East India company. 

The Horse Guards is the seat of the government of the vast military establishment 
of Great Britain. The king is the head and generalissimo of the army ; the com- 
mander-in-chief is the king's deputy, and acting ruler of the forces. The connexion 
between the Horse Guards and the civil government is maintained by a member of 
the latter, termed the secretary-at-war ; the paymaster-general is also usually a 
civilian. The commander-in-chief is assisted by a military secretary, an adjutant- 
general, a quartermaster-general, and a judge-advocate-general. There is also a 
chaplain-general. The ordnance office is partly at the Tower of London and in 



LONDON. 



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23 



354 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



Pall Mall ; and it is presided over by a master-general and a surveyor-general, witr 
their principal secretaries and clerks. 

We come now to the admiralty. The front of this building recedes from the street, 
but is connected with it by wings, forming a court-yard. The head of the admiralty 
is the lord high admiral ; but this office has been rarely held in person (the late king, 
when duke of Clarence, was lord high admiral for some time) ; but its duties are dis- 
charged by lords commissioners, the first lord being the head of the department. 

The preceding gives a very brief and rapid view of the head government offices in 
Downing street and Whitehall. But there are other offices of the executive, suboi- 
dinate indeed to those we have described, but each heads of departments. &z A "fverv 
great importance, in different parts of London. 

A number of what may be termed the working offices of government are in Som- 
erset house. This noble building is entered from the strand ; on passing through the 
gateway we arrive in a spacious quadrangle, and over the different doors on each 
side of the square may be remarked brief but significant intimations, such as " Stamps 
and Taxes," " Navy Payoffice," " Legacy Duty Office," " Audit Office," &c, &c. 




Somerset House. 

Here, therefore, is transacted a large portion of government money business, and the 
receipt and management of such parts of the revenue arising from trade as do not 
fall under the heads of customs or excise. For instance, under "Stamps" are inclu- 
ded the taxes levied on deeds, legacies, insurance policies, bills of exchange, bank- 
ers' notes, newspapers and advertisements, stage-coaches, post-horses, receipts, Sec. 

Among other offices in Somerset house, may be mentioned that of the poor-law 
commissioners. The money that was gathered in the country for poor-rates was, in 
1832-'34, between eight and nine millions annually ; in 1835 it fell down to little 
more than seven millions, and in 1836 it was little more than six millions. 

The excise office is in Broad street, and the customhouse in Lower Thames street, 
below London bridge. 



LONDON. 




*56 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

FIRE-INSURANCE, SUPPLY OF WATER, GAS, PAVING. 

The accompanying engraving supplies an illustration of the fact, that communi 
ties learn slowly what is best for the general health, convenience, and comfort. Thai 
tall column, " pointing to the skies," commemorates a terrible event, which weeded 
out the narrow streets and lanes where the plague, in its frequent visits, found the 
61th, discomfort, and misery, on which it fed ; yet, in spite of the warning, too many 
narrow streets sprung up on the site of those burned down ; and the monument on 
Fish-street hill, not only bore testimony to the great calamity which ultimately proved 
so beneficial, but seemed to rear its head over the narrow streets around it, as if to 
say, "Here, at least, another 'great plague,' or another 'great fire,' may find mate- 
rials on which to work." Happily, neither pestilence nor fire, in aggravated forms, 
has visited London since the latter half of the seventeenth century ; but it was not 
till the erection of the new London bridge and its approaches, that Fish-street hill 
assumed the handsome appearance it now presents. It looked very different a few 
years ago. 

This leads us to take a view of a very important department of the social charac- 
teristics of London — the means by which it is secured and insured from the ravages 
of fire, the supply of water, of gas, and the paving and sewerage. On all these com- 
bined depend a great many of the causes which make a city really great — not the 
greatness arising merely from magnificent public buildings or establishments, but 
that which communicates to the mass of the inhabitants the largest amount of social 
security, of enjoyment, of convenience, and of comfort. In all these respects London 
has much to improve ; yet its inhabitants enjoy more of them in a single day, than 
the inhabitants of imperial Rome did in a year, with all its wonderful monuments 
and public places of resort. 

There has hitherto been no special fire-preventive police, nor as yet, under the di- 
rection of the government or municipal authorities. The law merely requires par- 
ishes to keep fire-engines and ladders in certain places, and to provide stop-blocks 
and fire-cocks on the mains of the water-works. Gratuities are also directed to be 
paid to engine-keepers, &c, who arrive earliest at any fire for the purpose of extin- 
guishing it. The fire-insurance companies, however, have always kept up at their 
own expense a fire police. Formerly, each company had a distinct body of firemen, 
who were chiefly selected from the watermen ; these had a peculiar garb, and wore 
the badges of the companies to which they belonged. They had annual processions 
and dinners. When an alarm of fire was communicated to one of them, he ran on 
to rouse his nearest companion, and, having done so, proceeded to the fire ; the sec- 
ond went to alarm a third, and so on, till the whole body were roused. Ingenious as 
this was, there was a want of co-operation and a loss of time frequently experienced. 
The firemen pursued their usual avocations on the river when not required to perform 
their occasional duties, and when an alarm of fire was raised during the night most 
of them might be sound asleep after the labors of the day. To obviate the evils ari- 
sing from the employment of occasional servants, the greater number of the London 
fire-insurance companies joined together, about four years ago, to form a permanent 
body of firemen, ready at all hours to give immediate attendance on fires. This is 
-termed the "London Fire-Engine Establishment," and is supported at the expense 
of the following fire-insurance companies: The Alliance, Atlas, British, Globe, Guar- 
dian, Hand-in-Hand, Imperial, London, Norwich Union, Phoenix, Protector, Royal 
Exchange, Scottish Union, Sun, Union, and Westminster ; and these have been joined 
recently by the "Licensed Victuallers' Society." This fire establishment, instead of 
being under distinct officers appointed by each company, are embodied under the di- 
rection of a superintendent, with foremen and engineers under him, appointed to cer- 
tain stations. At these stations there is constant attendance day and night. The 



LONDON. 



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358 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

firemen are clothed in a uniform of dark gray, with their numbers in red on their left 
breasts. They wear strong leather helmets on their heads, which have been found 
of great service in protecting them from accidents occasioned by the fall of walls or 
other matters. The stations are in Ratcliffe, St. Mary Axe, Finsbury, Cheapside, 
Blackfriars, Holborn, Covent Garden, St. Giles's, Oxford street, Golden square Port- 
man square, Waterloo bridge road, Southwark bridge road, Tooley street, with extra 
engines in Shadwell, Westminster, Lambeth, and Rotherhithe. The number of men 
on the fire-engine establishment is between ninety and a hundred. 

In addition to this special fire-preventive body, it is the duty of the metropolitan 
police to give assistance in case of fire. In 1830 there were three hundred and eighty 
fires attended by this body, and fifty-one lives saved ; in 1831, the number of fires 
was three hundred and twenty-four, and the individuals saved sixty-eight ; in 1832, 
there were two hundred and fifty-two fires, and forty-seven saved. This does not in- 
clude the fires which occurred in the " city" of London. 

There are no published details from which we can learn the extent of the pave- 
ments of London, or the annual expense of maintaining them. The management 
of them is in the hands of a great number of boards, each having particular districts, 
and acting under various acts of parliament. Mr. Williams, in his work on "Sub- 
ways," taking for data the published accounts of the " city," and supposing it to be 
one fourth of the metropolis, makes a conjectural calculation that the amount annu- 
ally collected and expended on the streets of London is two hundred and sixteen 
thousand pounds. 

The reader is aware that most of the great continental cities are very indifferently 
supplied with foot-pavements. Paris, for instance, though it has been very much 
improved since the peace, is still " very perilous and noyous" to an American pedes- 
trian of the present day. 

We have given before some particulars respecting the state of the streets of Lon- 
don before they were generally lighted. Beckman, speaking of the time when the 
city was lighted with oil lamps, before the introduction of gas, says: " Oxford street 
alone is said to contain more lamps than all Paris. The roads, even seven or eight 
miles round London, are lighted by such lamps ; and as these roads from the city to 
different parts are very numerous, the lamps, seen from a little distance, particularly 
in the county of Surrey, where a great many roads cross each other, have a beautiful 
and noble effect." 

Mr. Williams, in 1828, says: "There are now in London four great gas-light 
companies, having altogether forty-seven gasometers at work, capable of containing, 
in the whole, nine hundred and seventeen thousand nine hundred and forty cubic feet 
of gas, supplied by one thousand three hundred and fifteen retorts; and these con- 
suming thirty-three thousand chaldrons of coals in a year, and producing forty-one 
thousand chaldrons of coke ; the whole quantity of gas generated annually being up- 
ward of three hundred and ninety-seven millions of cubic feet, by which sixty-one 
thousand two hundred and three private, and seven thousand two hundred and fifty- 
eight public or street lamps, are lighted in the metropolis. Besides these, there are 
several other minor companies and public establishments that light with gas." There 
are at present sixteen metropolitan gas-companies, supplying the entire extent of 
London. (For an illustration of a former mode of lighting the streets of London, see 
the engraving entitled " The Watch, with * cressets' and ' beacons.' ") 

The first attempt to supply London with water, by means superior to those of the 
conduits, pumps, and water-bearers of former times, was made by a Dutchman 
named Peter Morrys, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He contracted with the cor- 
poration to raise water by an engine, to be erected in an arch of London bridge, and 
to send it through pipes into the city. Four arches of the bridge were successively 
assigned to him and his descendants for the purpose ; and the London bridge water- 
works were in existence and operation till within these few years, having been only 
removed when the bridge was taken down. 

Next after him came the well-known Hugh Middleton, citizen and goldsmith, and 
afterward a baronet. His scheme was more magnificent, and having been executed 
with persevering earnestness as well as skill, it has effected the supply of a large 
portion of London for upward of two hundred years, and will doubtless continue to 
do so. This was the cutting of the canal, termed the New river. It derives its prin- 
cipal supplies from a spring at Chadwell, between Hertford and Ware, about twenty 
one miles north of London, and also from an arm of the river Lea, the source ot 



LONDON. 



359 




The Watch, with "cressets," and " beacons."— Grouped from Hollar. 

which is near the Chadwell spring, in the proportion of about two thirds of the lor- 
mer and one third of the latter. These united waters are conducted by an artificial 
channel, nearly four miles in length, to four reservoirs called the New River Head 
at Clerkenwell. The New River company having taken up the supply of that part 
of the city which used to be supplied from the London Bridge water-works, have 
erected an engine on the banks of the Thames, by which they are enabled, in case 
of any failure in the quantity supplied by the New river to draw from the Thames 
to make up the deficiency. The Hampstead water-works were also incorporated 
with the New River, and a considerable quantity of water is brought from the ponds 
on Hampstead heath to a reservoir near Tottenham court road. 

About twenty years ago, considerable excitement prevailed m London respecting 
the quality of the water supplied by the different water companies to the inhabitants 
of the metropolis. The larger portion of them deriving their supplies from the 
Thames, it was contended that the river, receiving the drainage of about one hun- 
dred and forty sewers, as well as all the refuse of the various soap, lead, gas, and 
d r£ manufactories, was quite an unfit place from which to supply so essential an ele- 
ment of life. The subject was investigated by parliament, and also by Dr. Roge , 
Mr. Brande, and the late Mr. Telford, acting as a commission under the great seal. 
The committee of the house of commons gave it as their opinion "that he then 
present state of the supply of water to the metropolis was suscep able of and ^ eqmred 
improvement ; that many of the complaints relative to the quality of the water were 



360 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

well founded ; that the supply ought to be derived from other sources than those 
then resorted to ; and that it should be guarded by such restrictions as would at all 
times insure the cleanliness and purity of an article of such prime necessity." 

In 1831, Mr. Telford was directed by government to "make a survey, and report 
upon the best mode of supplying the metropolis with pure water." He did so in the 
beginning of 1834 ; but it does not appear that anything material has since been done 
in the matter. 

There are eight water companies supplying London with water. These furnish 
to one hundred and ninety-one thousand and sixty-six houses a daily supply of twenty 
millions eight hundred and twenty-nine thousand five hundred and fifty-five imperial 
gallons. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 
THE COURT. 

The London " season," or winter, was reckoned, during the last century, from 
about the month of November till that of May. It was regulated, as it is now, by 
the usual duration of the session of parliament. Affluent people, who divided their 
time between London and the country, had less inducement then to absent themselves 
from the metropolis after the winter had set in, than they have now; and the state 
of the roads and means of communication, rendered it convenient to the legisla- 
ture to meet before travelling became, if not dangerous, at least very troublesome 
and annoying. Bath and Tunbridge Wells were fashionable resorts, and spread their 
attractions to induce their visiters to prolong their stay: but Ramsgate and Brighton 
were only obscure fishing villages, and Cheltenham Avas but starting into existence. 
The inclinations and tastes of the upper classes were much more frivolous than they 
are now — for he who compares habits and customs can not fail to remark that, 
however unequally, all classes are moving forward. We find frequent intimations 
in the novels and plays of the last century, of the aversion with which the " dull" 
country was regarded by the fashionables of the time, and their eager longings 
for the return of the London " season," with its round of heartless dissipation, its 
balls, and routs, and plays. Now, there is more intellect, more taste, more rational 
enjoyment of life among the upper classes ; and the improvement which has been 
effected, gives us a hopeful earnest of what may still further be accomplished, not 
only among them, but in every rank and grade of society. 

During the present century, the commencement of the London " season" has been 
gradually postponed. Since 1806, the opening of the session of parliament, has been 
veering from November to January: since 1822, it has almost settled into a rule (un- 
less, of course, when interrupted by anything extraordinary) that it should not be 
opened till about the month of February, the session extending till July, or the begin- 
ning of August. Thus the London " season" or winter, has been thrown into the 
months of spring and summer, 

The "east" and " west" ends of London present a curious contrast with respect to 
the London season. In the city, trade and commerce flow on in their accustomed 
channels, unaffected by the vicissitudes of fashion. During the month of August, he 
who moves in fashionable circles may exclaim, " There is nobody in town !" — an 
expression which appears ridiculous and affected, amid the never-ending throngs of 
Fleet street or Cheapside. But at that period, in the fashionable streets and squares 
of the "west end," the expression has force and meaning. There, house after 
house appears deserted ; the windows are closed with funeral-looking shutters; the 
streets, always more or less stately and quiet, are now silent and lonely ; one would 
think that the inhabitants had fled from the approach of the plague, or of a hostile 
army. It is then that the haberdashers, and milliners, and tailors, and bootmakers, 
and artificial florists, not forgetting the " curiosity dealers," and all the other suppli- 
ers of the wants and wishes of the wealthy, at the west end, feel that the London 



LONDON. 



361 




362 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

nW? , t 8 . c ! osed - The tradesmen of Oxford street, Bond street, and St James', dis- 
charge their extra workmen, and their "regular hands" are bu half 12 Sm 
after August and September have been pasfed, and October is well SKne ?£ 
winter trade begins. The inferior grades of the upper classes, who have urates 
ID he country and who have been visiting the highlands, English watering aces 

?nwn h ment ' retUm l 2 tOWn ' At kst ' the new ^ ar arri ^ s ! Parliament asimbles' 
town houses are occupied, and the hotels are filled. Still it is remark* hl P !l k i 

Sod^eT'' T' a ChlIUng Sprlng ' Wil1 retard th < 'wes "ndS e?a weTa^veg" 
tation. But court drawing-rooms and levees are announced ; the easier holvdfvs 
are over ; the spring becomes mild and genial ; and all becomes bustle and activkv 
It would be interesting if we could attain correct statistical inCmation resTct n'a 

wp« Z f " 7 h0 t a J T « e m L0nd ° n dming the Season ' and the increa™ anZecrease of 
west-end trade at different periods of the year. There are more than £,,r £?, «f a 

members of the house of Vrds, and the house of commons "composed of six hun 
dred .and fifty-eight members. If out of this number only four hundred brnS thX 

rl,«!vpn7 lth the ^ t0 L ° nd0n ' and Cach h ° USehold (annexions an depeSts ex 
elusive of servants) is composed, on an average, of but twelve individuals wltv 
four thousand eight hundred persons, say fiv? thousand Trough to L^ndJbvthe 

fifteen thousand persons. If the daily expenditure of these one tho^sandiwo hf/ 
t d l m - ,heS 1S ten P° und each ' that w iH P^duce twelve hou and poundTa dav* 

mmmmsm 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

INNS, HOTELS, TAVERNS, PUBLIC-HOUSES, AND CLUBS. 

At present in the metropolis there are three hundred and ninetv siv inn* L. 1 

we shall have at least four hundred and th^l^to^*?™^?^^ 

dw and in\r t t ed rT aU T (that '* kee P ers of P»blic-houses), especkl y in the 
city and about the docks, who accommodate strangers, of coffee-rooms and Pa tint 

vatJ LT" £ Y hlCh ha l e ,od ^^- h ouses attached to'them and of til raanv nrf 
Ian not aSvT ^^ "" P ro f fessiona % lodging-houses. Of the' numbers of These we 
can not arrive at any satisfactory approximation. ' e 

on the" St ° f , fash f ionable hotels-that is, of establishments where everything is 

£i ttfis Sy! *Tiw^*T^&"^gft ma r h T y »£*P£ 



LONDON. 



363 




364 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




Tavern, corner of Bow Street aud Long Acre. 



The commercial inns are more scattered about London. Many of these, though 
not aiming at the elegance of the fashionable hotels, are yet wealthy, long-estab- 
lished, and comfortable houses. Those from which the mail-coaches run, are the 
Golden Cross, at Charing Cross ; the Bolt-in-Tun, Fleet street ; the White Horse, 
Fetter lane ; the Bell and Crown, Holbom ; the Saracen's Head, Snowhill ; the Swan 
with two Necks, Lad lane ; the Spread Eagle, Gracechurch street ; the Belle Sauv- 
age, Ludgate hill ; and the Bull and Mouth, opposite the general postoffice, in St. 
Martin's-le-Grand. There are a number of other inns, which though not running 
mail coaches, are yet extensive stage-coach establishments ; and many others which 
are eminent as wagon-inns. The engraving (on p. 363) represents the " George 
and Blue Boar," in Holbom, as it appeared some years ago. It has since been con- 
siderably altered, and the open galleries no longer exist. 

Some of the taverns are well-known, from their connexion with political, chari- 
table, or festive meetings. Such, for instance, are the London, and the City of Lon- 
don taverns, both in Bishopsgate street ; the Albion, in Aldersgate street ; the Crown 
and Anchor, in the Strand; the Freemasons' tavern, in Lincoln's Inn Fields; the 
British coffeehouse and tavern, in Cockspur street ; the London coffeehouse and 
tavern on Ludgate hill ; and even, to go out of the heart of London to its southern 
verge, the Horns tavern fronting Kennington common. Other taverns have various 
characteristics. Lloyd's coffeehouse, and Garra way's, the first at the Royal exchange, 
the other not far from it, in 'Change alley, are associated with marine intelligence, 
underwriters, stock-jobbing, and auctions; the Chapter coffeehouse, a grave and quiet- 



LONDON. 



365 



looking place in Paternoster low, close to St. Paul's churchyard is much dedicated 
to the business of booksellers ; Peel's, in Fleet street and Deacon's, in Walbrook, are 
sought forTy hose who wish to consult numerous files of newspapers of every de- 
sougm ior uy luuse e nrf ,\a. n . the lover of literary reminiscences and associations 

KSfiZSTSS^ S^^WS-^"-.* M< ecu,,, endeavor 
may stroiiuuwn * tavern, where Ben Jonson held his club, and Swift, 

andTddffon and Gar h «? ^2^ diaed, or.else turn aside into the Mitre, 
Tf he mourn the almost total obliteration of the old taverns of the classica eras of 
FlizabTh aU AnnShe may cross over to Southwark, and though even there the 
Snd of improvement is at work, still he will find some traces of « former days ' 

rude and unsettled, and liberty of action too much ™"™£**'%^°£^l£. 
tence of any regular convivial association, whose objects might not have been under 




Club Chambers, Regent Street 



366 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

stood, or might have been misinterpreted. " Good fellows" must, therefore, have 
been contented to seek each other's company at taverns, in accidental or preconcerted 
meetings, not daring (probably not thinking of it) to establish a permanent associa- 
tion. But in the more settled and brilliant times of her of whom Andrew Marvel 
exclaims, 

" None ever reigned like old Bess in the ruff," 

the remarkable men of a remarkable time, established the first clubs that are recorded 
in our literature. Ben Jonson's club, for which he wrote his " Leges Convivales," 
or laws of conviviality, met at the Devil tavern, which stood near Temple bar ; and 
at the Mermaid tavern, in Friday street, which runs off Cheapside, was held a still 
more famous club, of which Shakspere, Beaumont and Fletcher, Sir Walter Raleigh, 
Selden, Donne, and others, were members. 

After the Restoration, a principal resort of literary men, wits, talkers, and idlers, 
was Will's coffeehouse, which stood at the corner of Bow street. Here Dryden 
, reigned, by universal consent, as the literary monarch of the age. But it is painful 
to contemplate the dissolute period of the reign of Charles II. The conduct of a 
large portion of the higher and better-educated classes of that time appears almost 
as if a general determination had been come to, of employing all the ingenuity of 
intellect to degrade and brutify the diviner faculties of man. 

There were a great number of clubs in existence in London during the early part 
of the eighteenth century; and Steele and Addison, with their delightful ideal paper 
clubs in the Tatler and Spectator, contributed much to spread them, and bring 
them into fashion with all classes. But evil as well as good sprung from the great 
increase of these associations. If literary and educated men met together, to enjoy 
in easy and convivial intercourse the outpourings of wit and fancy, there were not 
wanting others who imitated what they did not understand, and substituted brutality 
and drunkenness for exhilaration and pleasant enjoyment. A royal proclamation 
was issued in April, 1721, for the suppression of "certain scandalous clubs or 
societies of young persons who meet together," whose conduct was certainly of a 
most improper kind. 

What a change has a few years produced ! " Good fellows" may still meet in 
taverns and coffeehouses under Dr. Johnson's " certain conditions," but their pro- 
ceedings are unmarked and unknown to any but themselves. The word " club" 
has been carried off by a neAV species of association, which has produced a great 
refinement in the art of luxury. It has been objected, that these societies are not 
"clubs," in the "good old English" acceptation. But it seems idle to dispute the 
appropriation of the word — these associations are, emphatically, " the clubs of Lon- 
don." The stranger who walks along Pall-Mail, and turns up St. James street, will 
pass a number of the finest buildings in the metropolis — these are " club-houses," 
erected by the societies to which they belong, and appropriated exclusively to their 
purposes. Three or four of the clubs are avowedly political associations, admission 
to them being supposed to stamp the political opinions and predilections of the 
members. Others occupy neutral ground, where educated, literary, travelled, and 
professional men are supposed to congregate, without reference to particular notions 
or opinions. What are termed " subscription" club-houses, are the property of pri- 
vate individuals; and one or two of these enjoy a rather equivocal reputation, being 
supposed to be frequented by those who are fond of gambling. If the exterior of 
the club-houses (in Pail-Mall especially) attract the eye by their architectural beauties, 
no less will the interior please the visiter by the elegance with which they are fitted 
up. Here the members are in their own houses — they are " at home," surrounded 
by the comforts and attention of a fashionable hotel. They can stroll down to their 
" clubs," pass the day as they please, reading or writing, dine singly or in company, 
join in conversation, or retreat into a corner with the newspaper or the last " Re- 
view." The members of these clubs are admitted by a ballot election ; they pay a 
certain sum as entrance money, and an annual subscription. The large number of 
members of which generally each club is composed, the eager competition which 
exists for filling up vacancies as they occur, the new clubs and the new club-houses 
which are constantly springing up — display, in a remarkable manner, the power of 
combination and concentration. The scene presented by Pall-Mall and St. James's 
street can not be matched ; for nowhere in the world can be seen, in so short a lime, 
so many noble buildings devoted by associations of meu to their personal enjoyment, 
comfort, and convenience. 



LONDON. 



367 




368 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



There are thirty-six principal clubs in London, embracing, probably, not less than 
20,000 members. Of course some individuals may be members of several clubs. 
These clubs, too, are in addition to the great number of literary and scientific as- 
sociations in the metropolis, of which we shall have occasion to speak in treating 
of another class of London characteristics. The following clubs are in Pali-Mall : 
the Union, in Trafalgar square, Pall-Mall east ; the University club, for members of 
the universities of Cambridge and Oxford ; the Junior University club, nearly facing 




Oxford and Cambridge University Club-House. 

the British institution ; the Athenaeum ; the United Service, for officers — (the Junioi 
United Service is in Charles street, St. James's square) ; the Travellers'; the Carl- 
ton; and the Reform club. In St. James's street there are Boodle's club, White's 
club, the St. James's, and the Junior St. James's ; the West India club, Brookes's, 
the Cocoa Tree club, Arthur's, the Albion, Graham's, and Crockford's. In St. 
James's square, which lies enclosed between Pall-Mall and the east end of Picca- 
dilly, there are the Wyndham club and the Parthenon. The Clarence and the Cla- 
rendon are in Waterloo place, close by Pall-Mall ; the Oriental is in Hanover 
square ; the Portland in Stafford place, Oxford street ; the Royal Naval in New 
Bond street ; the Alfred in Albemarle street ; and the " Cercle des Etrangeres" in 
Regent street. Proceeding eastward, we find that the Westminster chess club hold 
their meetings at No. 101 in the Strand ; the Garrick club in King street, Covent 
garden ; the city Conservative in Threadneedle street ; and the city of London c ub 
has a handsome club-house in Broad street. 



LONDON. 369 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL COMMUNICATION. 

One of the most pleasing of the outside shows of London is that of the daily de- 
parture of the mail-coaches. They start every night at eight o'clock, from the post- 
office, except on Sunday evenings, when they go off an hour earlier. A few of the 
mail-coaches, which start from the " west-end" of London, do not come up to the 
postoffice, the mails being conveyed to them in mail-carts. All the rest arrive, a 
short time before the hour of starting, from their respective inns — the Blossoms, 
Lawrence lane; the Swan with Two Necks, Lad lane; the Spread Eagle, Grace- 
church street; the Belle Sauvage, Ludgate hill, &c, &c. Most of the names of 
these inns are ancient, and carry with them interesting associations. 

The postoffice building is about three hundred and eight-nine feet long, one hun- 
dred and thirty feet wide, and sixty-four feet high ; it is built externally of Portland 
stone, and, with the exception of the principal front, is entirely plain, and without 
any attempt at architectural display. The entrances to the building are through the 
central portico in the west or principal side, and by a corresponding doorway in the 
east front in Foster Lane. The space between these two points is occupied by the 
grand public hall, which is eighty feet long, by about sixty feet wide, divided into 
a centre and two aisles, by two ranges of six columns, these columns, which have 
corresponding pilasters, are of the Ionic order, constructed of Portland stone, and 
standing upon pedestals of granite. The centre of the hall is so much higher than 
the side aisles as to admit of the insertion of windows, by which it is principally 
lighted. 

Entering from the principal front, the offices on the right hand are appropriated 
to the foreign letter and twopenny post departments, the receiver-general's, the 
accountant's, and the secretary's departments. On the opposite, or northern side 
are the inland, the ship-letter, and the newspaper offices. At the eastern, or Foster 
Lane end of this aisle, is a staircase leading to the letter-bill, dead, missent, and 
returned letter offices. In the eastern front, north of the centre, is a vestibule where 
the letter-bags are received, and whence they are despatched from and to the mails. 
The inland office communicates with this vestibule, and is eighty-eight feet long, 
fifty-six feet wide, and twenty-eight feet high. The letter carriers' office, which 
adjoins, is one hundred aDd three feet long, thirty-five wide, and thirty-three high. 
The letters to and from the West Indies, and the continent of North America, have 
an office expressly appropriated to them, and which is likewise on this side of the 
building. The comptroller's and mail-coach offices are also is this quarter. 

It might occasion some confusion if the communication between the offices in the 
northern and southern divisions of the building were carried on through the public 
hall. This disadvantage is obviated by means of a tunnel, which runs under the hall, 
in which the letters are conveyed between the departments by the aid of ingeniously- 
contrived machinery. 

The basement is vaulted, and consequently fire-proof. It contains the armory 
and mail-guards' room, the servants' offices ; and also an apparatus for warming the 
building by means of heated air, a patent gasmeter, and a governor for regulating 
the supply of gas to between seven hundred and eight hundred argand burners dis- 
tributed through the offices and passages. 

The board-room, which is thirty-seven feet long and twenty-four feet broad, the 
secretary's looms and his clerks' offices, are all on the first floor, and communicate 
by long pa?sages with the solicitor's offices, and some others of minor importance. 
The second and third stories are occupied by sleeping apartments for the clerks of 
the foreign letter office, who are obliged to be constantly upon the spot to receive the 
foreign mails, which arrive at all hours. 

The building is altogether exceedingly well arranged for the convenience of the 
public, as well as the officers employed in its various departments, and is creditable 
to the taste and judgment of the architect, Mr. Smirke. 

The London postoffice establishment comprises three principal departmeuts, th» 

24 



376 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




LONDON. 371 

it. land office, the foreign office, and the distributing postoffice. In connexion with the 
inland office is the ship-letter office, for receiving and despatching letters for the 
colonies and foreign parts by private trading vessels, the letters so conveyed being 
subjected to a less rate of postage than letters transmitted by packets in the pay of 
government. Letters passing to and from the colonies come, likewise, within the 
management of the inland office, in London ; being received in the first instance at 
an outpost, generally Falmouth, whence they are forwarded by the local postmasters, 
in the same manner as inland letters. 

The routine business of the inland office is necessarily divided among several 
departments. The principal of these, besides the ship-letter office, are the by-letter, 
the dead-letter, the returned-letter, the letter-bill, the accountant-general's, and the 
receiver-general's offices: the latter of these officers acts as a check upon the post- 
master-general, and consequently the appointment of the receiver-general rests not 
with the postmaster-general, but with the lords of the treasury. The receiver-general 
holds his office by patent. 

It will perhaps exemplify sufficiently our description of the various functions of the 
different officers employed in the postoffice, if we describe the ordinary routine fol- 
lowed in the receipt and despatch of letters to and from London in 1835. 

In addition to the principal office in St. Martin's-le-Grand, there are several branch 
offices and receiving houses in different part of the town, where letters can be de- 
posited by the public. These letters are collected by the letter-carriers at a stated 
period in the evening, which must of course be earlier than the hour to which the 
principal office is continued open ; and they are conveyed in sealed bags — generally 
by carts — to St. Martin's-le-Grand. The "seals of these bags are broken by persons 
appointed for the purpose; and their contents are thrown out into great baskets, 
preparatory to their being sorted. 

The first operation is that of stamping the letters : this is performed at several large 
tables, four or more persons, according to the pressure of business for the night, being 
employed at each table. This stamping is performed by messengers, or by the letter- 
carriers ; and, as they are stamped, one person is employed to ascertain the number 
of letters that pass through the office in the evening. 

When the letters are stamped, they are taken away to be assorted into about 
twenty divisions, on as many tables, corresponding with the lines of road by which 
they are to be sent. In this first sorting, all those letters are placed together which 
are intended for the same line of road, the different heaps being distinguished by 
numbers, as I, 2, 3, &c. ; and persons are employed continually in collecting together 
the corresponding heaps from all these tables in order to their being conveyed to other 
tables where other sorters are employed. A certain number of individuals are assign- 
ed to every road, and by them the letters are again assorted for the different places 
to which they are directed. By this division of the labor the work is much simplified. 
It would, indeed, be hardly possible to divide at one operation so great a number of 
letters, intended for so great a variety of places, as are brought together every 
evening in the London postoffice. 

The next operation is that of placing the assorted letters in bags, previously to 
which, however, every letter is marked with the amount of postage to which it is 
liable ; and an account is taken with the whole amount of postage, that the post- 
master of the town to which they are going may be charged with the same. The 
bags are then sealed, and delivered into the custody of the mail-guards. Each of 
these guards, of course, takes charge of the mail-bags for every post-town through 
which the mail-coach, with which he travels, is to pass ; and, to avoid confusion, he 
places the whole number of bags in a large sack, arranging them in the inverse 
order to that in which they are to be delivered. For instance, the Dover coach takes 
the mails for Welling, Dartford, Rochester, Sittingbourn, and Canterbury, as well 
as for the place of its ultimate distination. The Dover bag is therefore placed in 
the bottom of the sack— that for Canterbury next— then the Sittingbourn bag, and 
so on ; the one for Welling, which will soonest be wanted, being placed nearest to 
the mouth of the sack. The coaches which travel to greater distances, and which 
pass through a great number of post-towns, must carry several of these sacks, which 
are always* unsealed, for the greater convenience of taking out the bags on arrival at 
the different towns. 

From the moment they are delivered into his custody, the guard is held responsible 
for the safety of the letter-bags. The box in the hind part of the coach, in which 



372 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




LONDON. 373 

they are placed, is secured by a patent lock, the key of which is, of course, in the 
guard's possession. On arriving at a post-town, the bag intended for it is delivered 
into the custody of the postmaster, who, in his turn, commits to the guard any letters 
which may have been deposited in his office, directed to places through which the 
mail will pass ; and these additional bags are immediately locked up in the coach. 

The mode of proceeding with letters sent from the country to London is similar to 
what has just been described. They are stamped and taxed — that is, the amount of 
postage is marked upon them by the postmaster — by whom they are then enclosed 
in sealed bags and given into the custody of the guard. 

The arrival of the mail-coaches in London from almost all parts of the country 
takes place, as already mentioned, as nearly as possible at the same time. In the 
ordinary state of the roads the whole of these coaches usually reach the postoffice 
within half an hour of each other, and between 5 and 6 o'clock in the morning. 

The bags are brought on their arrival by a messenger to certain junior clerks called 
tick clerks, who take an account of them to see whether all are received, and to 
make a note of any that may be missing, for the information of the superintending 
president. The bags of each mail-coach, successively as they arrive, are then dis- 
tributed among fourteen clerks, two of whom are stationed at each of seven tables. 
The first duty of these clerks is to see that each bag is properly secured ; each clerk 
then opens the several bags allotted to him. His next duty is to ascertain that the 
amount of the paid letters is correctly entered upon the bill which the postmaster 
transmits from the country in each bag, and to certify that he has done so by writing 
his initials upon the bill. In case of error a second clerk is applied to, to check the 
computation, and the true charge is entered in a book kept for the purpose. It is 
also the duty of the fourteen clerks to make transcripts in a book of the addresses of 
letters containing cash or trinkets, which the postmasters are instructed to enter upon 
their bills. 

While the openers have been thus engaged, the unpaid and free letters will have 
been undergoing the process of being stamped and subsequently examined, the 
former as to the postage taxed upon them, and the latter as to the number of franks, 
by different persons stationed for each purpose at the respective tables. If any 
overcharge or undercharge be discovered, the correct amount of postage is substituted 
upon the letter, and an entry made of the corrections in a book which is kept for the 
purpose. 

The business of stamping unpaid letters is performed by sixteen messengers. The 
paid letters, when checked, as above mentioned, by the opening clerks, are given 
over to be stamped and examined by two other clerks. 

Portions of the letters, as they have undergone the process of stamping and ex- 
amination, are, from time to time, delivered to letter-carriers, who are employed in 
the assorting of them, which in the first place is effected into fourteen grand divisions ; 
immediately after which the letters are taken by other letter-carriers, who sort them 
in divisions corresponding with the districts of actual delivery. In the progress of 
this sorting, the letters are sent in small parcels to the tellers, who cast up the amount 
of each parcel, and deliver a ticket of each charge to the check clerk. These parcels 
are then deposited in boxes provided for each district, and subsequently retold by the 
letter-carrier, by whom they are to be accounted for ; and he states the amount of 
his telling to the check clerk, to see that it corresponds with the tellers' tickets. 
The carriers then set out in order to deliver the letters ; and in order to expedite 
this business as much as possible, a plan was first put in operation when the new 
postoffice was opened for business. Those letter-carriers whose walks are at a 
considerable distance from the office, take their stations in carriages built something 
in the form of an omnibus, and are conveyed as near as possible to the scene of their 
duties. The postmen are packed in these carriages after the same principle adopted 
in placing the mail-bags in the sack ; the man who has the greatest distance to go gets 
first into the carriage, while he who is to quit it the earliest gets in the last. By this 
contrivance there is much less difference than formerly between the time of deliver- 
ing letters at the near and the more distant parts of the town ; while the greater 
convenience afforded by the enlarged space and well-considered arrangements of the 
new office have occasioned the sorting and other preliminaries to be got through in 
much less time than formerly. 

The yard round the postoffice, from which the mail-coaches start, is separated 
from the street by an iron railing, through which the spectators can see the process 



374 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




LONDON. 



375 



of packing the mail-bags. Each mail-coach takes the mail-bags of the various 
towns and places on its route, and also the mails for places in the neighborhood of 
the route, whence they are conveyed by cross-mails. When eight o'clock has 
arrived, they all prepare to start ; the guards secure their valuable packages, the 
coachmen seize the reins, and, one by one, the mails set off, issuing by the gates on 
either side of the postoffice. v There is no confusion or irregular bustle, yet there is 
no delay ; in a few minutes they all disappear, and the twanging of the horns is lost 
in the noise of the streets — before midnight the total number started have run, in the 
aggregate, upward of a thousand miles. 

The daily regularity of this proceeding is one of the triumphs of modern civiliza- 
tion. The inhabitants of the remote Orkneys or Shetlands can calculate on receiv- 
ing the news of this great metropolis (and all that it has gathered during the day 
from every quarter of the world), in little more than a hundred hours; the High 
lander, whose country a century ago was nearly as much a " land unknown" as is 
now. the interior of Africa or Australia, obtains ample intelligence is as many days 
as it once took weeks, or even months, for vague rumors to reach the border. But 
notwithstanding the highly improved state of the present mail-system, the increase 
of the population, and of trade and commerce, demand additional facilities of com- 
munication. 

There are fifty-four four-horse mails in England, and forty-nine pair-horse mails. 
The greatest speed travelled is ten miles five furlongs per hour ; the slowest speed 
six miles; and the average speed eight miles seven furlongs per hour. The average 
mileage paid for four-horse mails is lfrf. per mile. The number of four-horse mails 
in Ireland is thirty, and in Scotland ten. 

In order to enable the reader who may not have visited London, to understand the 
direction of the routes which are occupied by the short stages and omnibuses ply- 
ing in the neighborhood of the metropolis, and through its streets, let us take, the 
following method of explanation. The Thames flows from west to east. In pass- 
ing through, or rather by, London, its course is somewhat circuitous. The Surrey 
side of London, or the south side of the Thames, is very populous — the parliamentary 
boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth containing upward of 300,000 inhabitants. 
But it is chiefly on the north or Middlesex side of the Thames that the wealth, 
fashion, and business of London lie. The Thames, in coming from the west, makes a 
great sweep from south to north, forming a bend, in which is contained the houses 
of parliament, and the government edifices of Whitehall. From Charing Cross 
eastward the river keeps a rather straight course, so that the Strand and Fleet street, 
which run parallel to it, may be represented (riot literally but comparatively) by a 
straight line. Keeping this in mind, let us take the following diagram for illus- 
tration : — 

NORTH. 
The Angel Inn, Islington. 



The Elephant and Castle Inn. 
SOUTH. 



376 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




LONDON. 377 

Supposing the cross line to represent the thoroughfare running from the " west end' 
by Charing Cross, through the Strand, Fleet street, Ludgate hill, and Cheapside, to 
the bank, Royal exchange and Mansion-house, let us direct our attention to the 
north and south points. The mail and stage-coaches going by the north roads 
generally call at the Angel inn and the Peacock tavern, which are close to each 
other, in Islington ; and those going south call at the Elephant and Castle inn, in 
Newington. These two northern and southern points, therefore, are great gathering 
places and stations for short stages and omnibuses. Between the Angel inn at 
Islington and the Elephant and Castle inn there are seventeen omnibuses plying. 
These vehicles start from Islington, taking generally a supply of passengers for the 
city, there being but few who require to go the whole way to the Elephant and 
Castle. There are two roads, meeting at a point at the Angel, which lead into the 
city — one called the city road, which leads direct to the bank and Royal exchange ; 
the other termed the Goswell street road, which keeps a little more south than the 
city road, and leads into St. Martin's-le-Grand, past the general postoffice. This 
road the omnibuses take which ply between the Angel inn and the Elephant and 
Castle inn. A number of passengers generally leave the vehicles at the postoffice : 
they then, passing down Newgate street run through Farnngdon street, past the 
front of the Fleet prison, and across the Thames by Blackfriars bridge. The length 
of this route is about three miles. In addition to the omnibuses plying between the 
Angel inn and the Elephant and Castle inn, there are three plying between the latter 
and Charing Cross, at the " west end." 

On the south side of the river Thames are a great number of districts and villages 
which, a few years ago, presented fields and lanes between them ; but which are 
now, by the filling up of their interstices, beginning to lose all appearance of coun- 
try. Along the banks of the river, in Southwark and Lambeth, are the tanners, 
and dyers, and hatters, and hop-merchants, colormen, and druggists, with their fac- 
tories and warehouses ; further south lie Camberwell and Walworth, Newington 
and Kennington, Peckham and Brixton. At the Elephant and Castle inn vehicles 
presenting different shapes and varieties may be found — the long close omnibus : 
the fly, a gig-like thing hung round with curtains; the stage, that once, perhaps, 
run long journeys, now condemned to short — all awaiting the pleasure of the holy- 
day-maker, or the will of the man on business. Some are for Norwood, with its 
spa and its gipsy-parties; others for Dulwich and its picture-gallery ; or Streatham, 
where resided the hospitable brewer and his literary lady, whose house was so long 
a home to Dr. Johnson. Here, too, but more southwest, are Putney, and Kew, and 
Richmond ; and southeast, in Kent, Deptford, and Greenwich, and Lewisham, and 
Blackheath. 

The Angel inn at Islington presents a busy scene. A road, called the New road, 
comes up from the "west end," and just where this inn stands, joins the city road. 
Here, between the " west end" and the bank, ply fifty-four omnibuses. Through 
Islington, too, pass a great number of vehicles, to Holloway, Highbury, Hornsey, &c. 
Hornsey wood, a favorite spot for excursions, is supposed to preserve in its name a 
relic of the great forest which once stood on the north side of London, and which 
abounded with bears, wolves, and wild-boars. Away, northwest, rise the high 
grounds of Hampstead and Highgate, much resorted to by those who seek to escape 
from the fogs of London to a purer air. The country in this direction is dotted over 
with villas and villages, and affords some delightful views. Indt- ' 'he environs ot 
London are, speaking generally, admirable. The weeping atm^'-nere which in 
winter keeps the city in darkness, and the pavement perpetually moist and miry, 
imparts in summer a green and refreshing verdure lo all the fields around the me- 
tropolis. And thus the pent-up citizen, whose business or means will not permit 
him to visit the brown plains of France, need not fret himself for that. He can 
take an omnibus to Hampstead, and for a shilling, with ease to himself and profit 
to his carrier, look down from Hampstead heath on one of the finest prospects to be 
had in the neighborhood of any capital city. 

The populous villages of Hackney, Homerton, Clapton, Edmonton, immortalized 
by the adventures of John Gilpin, Enfield, celebrated in former days for its chase 
(a large tract of woodland, which was well stocked with deer, but has been dis- 
forested), and further off, Epping and Henhault forests, which together cover 10,000 
acres, and contain some fine trees, lie on the north and northeast of London. 

At the city end of London, in Bishopsgate street and Gracechurch street, in Corn 



378 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




LONDON. 379 

hill and Leadenhall street, from the bank and Roya. exchange, arp to be found 
vehicles running to the various places we have named. It has been stated on good 
authority that about 1,600 trips or journeys are made every day througn Cheapside 
by short stages, omnibuses, hackney-coaches, and cabriolets. 

There is an annual procession of mail-coaches on the queen's birthday, both in 
London and in Dublin. Von Raumer, in "Letters from England," speaking of the 
London procession, says : "Such a splendid display of carriages and four as these 
mail-coaches and their horses afforded could not be found or got together in all 
Berlin. It was a real pleasure to see them in all the pride and strength which, in 
an hour or two later, was to send them in every direction with incredible rapidity to 
every corner of England." 

Hackney-coaches and sedan-chairs were, until the beginning of the present cen- 
tury, the only public vehicles in use in the streets of London. The sedan-chair has 
almost entirely disappeared. In the time of Hogarth it was considered as a courtly 
vehicle, and in one of his plates of the " Modern Rake's Progress," we see his man 
of fashion using it to go to St. James's. It continued to be used at a much later 
period, and does not appear to have been generally laid aside until the beginning of 
the present century. About five-and-twenty years ago a sedan was very commonly 
seen in the hall or lobby of gentlemen's houses, no longer used, but laid like a shij^ 
in ordinary. 

Sedan-chairs were introduced by Charles I. on his return from his visit to Spain. 
When the duke of Buckingham, who received two of the three sedan-chairs which 
Charles brought from Spain, used them in London, a great clamor was raised against 
him by the populace, that he was reducing free-born Englishmen and Christians to 
the offices and condition of beasts of burden. 

In 1826 the number of hackney-coaches and cabriolets in the metropolis was 
eleven hundred and fifty, paying a duty of 21. per lunar month for each, which 
produced, including fines, 29,392/. In 1827 and 1828 the number was exactly 
twelve hundred ; and in 1829 and 1830 (in the latter year omnibuses were intro- 
duced) the number was twelve hundred and sixty-five, producing a yearly duty of 
32,000/. By the hackney-coach act passed in 1831, the number was directed not to 
exceed twelve hundred until the beginning of 1833,»but since that period licenses 
have been granted without limitation as to number. The number of hackney- 
coaches and cabriolets at present licensed in the metropolis is seventeen hundred 
and seven. It would be difficult to arrive at a proper idea of the number of persons 
who use them, or the amount of money earned by them daily. It is understood, 
however, that the proprietors require from a guinea to twenty-five shillings a day 
from the drivers. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE "BANK" AND BANKING.— THE MINT.— THE EXCHANGE AND 
ITS NEIGHBORHOOD. 

The Jews and the Lombards were the earliest money-brokers. By Lombards, is 
generally understood merchants from the Italian republics of Genoa, Lucca, Flor- 
ence, and Venice. 

In the narrow street called Old 'Change, which runs from Chea*pside toward the 
river, was formerly the office of the king's exchanger. The exchanging of the coin 
of the realm for foreign coin or bullion was early held to be an especial royal prerog- 
ative — a " flower of the crown." The " statute concerning false money," passed in 
1299 (27 Ed. I.), inflicted the penalty of loss of goods and life for bringing in base 
money into the country ; but permitted all persons, of whatever country or nation, to 
bring " to our exchange all sorts of money of good silver, of whatever foreign coin or 
whatever value they may be." In the act of Edward III., " It is accorded, that it 
6hall be lawful for every man to exchange gold for silver, so that no man hold nor 



380 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




LONDON. 381 

take profit for making such exchange, upon forfeiture of the money so exchanged : 
except the king's exchangers, which take profit of such exchange, according to the 
ordinance made." 

The goldsmiths, however, hecame dealers in foreign coin, and, in spite of the king's 
exchanger, took "profit for making such exchange." Their shops were chiefly on 
the south side of Cheapside, and extended from Old 'Change to Bucklersbury. 
There were goldsmiths also in Lombard street. Whatever may have been done be- 
tween individuals in the way of lending and borrowing money (taking interest for the 
use of money was not allowed by law till 1546), the practice could not be general ; 
for down to the year 1640, the merchants of London were in the habit of lodging 
their money at the mint, in the Tower of London, as a place of security ; the mint 
was, in fact, their bank. But Charles I., having in that year taken possession of 
two hundred thousand pounds, which was lying at the mint, destroyed its character 
as a place of security, and compelled the merchants to keep their money at home. 
On the breaking out of the civil war, it became a common practice for the appren- 
tices and clerks of the citizens to rob their masters or employers, and run off. This 
opened ihe way for the goldsmiths to become bankers. They received money in 
trust, allowing interest for it, and their receipts, or acknowledgments of the sums 
intrusted with them, began to pass from hand to hand, just as bank notes do now. 
They had been in the habit of lending money to the king, on the security of the taxes. 
This practice they extended to private individuals, on the security either of their 
credit or of goods ; and thus, previous to the establishment of the bank of England, 
the goldsmiths were the bankers of London, and had laid the foundation of the pres- 
ent metropolitan banking system. 

The bank of England — the largest bank in the world — was founded in 1694. 
Several schemes had been suggested by different individuals for a banking establish- 
ment •, but at last the project of a Scotch gentleman of the name of Patterson was 
acted on. The government of King William III. being in great want of money, it 
was proposed to lend it one million two hundred thousand pounds, on the condition 
of the lenders receiving a charter of incorporation as a banking company. This was 
agreed to ; the subscription list was filled in ten days, and on the 27th of July, 1694, 
the bank received its charter of incorporation. By this charter the management of 
the bank was committed to a governor, deputy-governor, and twenty-four directors. 
The charter was at first limited to eleven years; but it has been renewed at succes- 
sive periods since. The last renewal was in 1833, when it was extended till 1855, 
with a proviso that, in 1845, if parliament think fit, and the money owing by govern- 
ment to the bank be paid up, the charter can then be withdrawn. Some alterations 
were made in the mana?ement of the bank, on the renewal of the charter in 1833, 
and it was then directed that a statement of the affairs of the bank should be sent 
weekly to the chancellor of the exchequer, and that an average statement of these 
accounts should be published quarterly. 

The amount of money lent bv the bank to crovernment gradually increased ; in 
1833 it was 14,686,804/. It has'since been reduced to 11,015,100/. This large sum 
is the security given to. the public for the solidity of the bank. 

The " bank" is certainly an enormous pile of building. It was referred to the late 
Sir John Soane to say what he thought would be a fair rent for the bank, used as it 
is for its present purposes. His opinion was, that thirty-five thousand pounds per an- 
num was a fair charge for rent, and five thousand for fixtures, repairs, &c, making 
forty thousand pounds. In 1832, there were employed at the bank eight hundred 
and twenty clerks and porters, and thirty-eight printers and engravers ; and there 
were also one hundred and ninety-three pensioners, chiefly superannuated clerks, who 
received in pensions thirty-one thousand two hundred and forty-three pounds, avera- 
ging one hundred and sixiy-one pounds to each. In the same year the salaries and 
pensions amounted to two hundred and eighteen thousand and three pounds, the 
house expenses to thirty-nine thousand one hundred and eighty-seven pounds ; the 
Jirectors' allowance was eight thousand pounds, and the rent, &c, was set down, as 
already stated, at forty thousand pounds. The salaries of the officers at the branch 
banks in the country amounted to twenty-five thousand pounds. 

The principal rooms of the bank are freely open to the public during banking 
hours. Speaking of the pay-hall, the Baron Dupin, in his " Commercial Power of 
Great Britain," says: " The administration of a French bureau, with all its inacces- 
sibilities, would be startled at the view of this hall !" The largest amount of gold 



382 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 







LONDON. 383 

coin that could be paid in the banking hours of one day by twenty-five clerks, if 
counted by hand to the persons demanding it, is about fifty thousand pounds. On 
the 14th of May. 1832, three hundred and seven thousand pounds in gold was paid. 
But the greater part of this sum was paid in the following way : The tellers counted 
twenty-five sovereigns into one scale and twenty-five into the other, and, if they bal- 
anced, continued the operation until there were two hundred in each scale. In this 
way one thousand pounds can be paid in a few minutes. Bankers and other persons 
taking large sums in gold from the bank receive them by weight, instead of by the 
more tedious operation of counting out each sovereign. Mr. Horsley Palmer stated 
to the parliamentary committee of 1832, that, if gold was paid by weight, in bags, 
the bank could pay almost any sum in one day. 

In addition to the bank of England, there are, in London, at present, seventy-six 
banking establishments. This includes four or five branches of provincial banks. 
Among the present banking establishments of London, there are three which were in 
existence before the bank of England. These are, the Messrs. Child & Co., and 
the Messrs. Hoares, in Fleet street, and the Messrs. Snow & Co., in the Strand. 

About the year 1775 the bankers of the "city" set on foot an economical plan for 
the purpose of saving both time and money. They established the " Clearing-House," 
in Lombard street. A great part of the payments which are made to and by bankers 
in the course of a day, are made on the authority of checks, or bills of exchange. 
' At certain hours in each day, a clerk goes from each banking establishment to the 
Clearing-House, in Lombard street, taking with him all the drafts which have been 
paid into his banking house addressed to other bankers. These are placed in draw- 
ers, which are allotted in the Clearing-House to each banker. Each clerk gives 
credit for the drafts which he finds in his own drawer, against the drafts which he 
has placed in the drawers of other bankers. By this means, the checks drawn on 
one banker are cancelled by the checks which he holds on others. After four o'clock 
on each day balances are struck. In 1810, when forty-six banks settled with each 
other at the Clearing-House, the daily amount of accounts which were thus cancelled 
varied from five millions of pounds to as high as fifteen millions ; while the actual 
money, or bank-notes, required to pay off odd balances was only from two hundred 
and fifty thousand pounds to five hundred thousand. Mr. Gilbart, the present mana- 
ger of the London and Westminster bank, states, in his " History of Banking," pub- 
lished in 1834, that in that year the number of bankers who settled with each other 
at the Clearing-House was only thirty. The number is probably increased at present. 
There are two inspectors at the Clearing-House, with salaries, whose business is to 
superintend and detect errors which may be made by clerks in the hurry of business. 
The " west-end" bankers are not connected with the Clearing-House. 

Lombard street still preserves much of its old character. Stow describes it as 
" throughout graced with good and lofty buildings, among which are many that sur- 
pass those in other streets,! and generally is inhabited by goldsmiths, bankers, mer- ' 
cers, and other eminent tradesmen." It was destroyed in the great fire of 1666 ; but 
at the present day it is still inhabited by " bankers and other eminent tradesmen." 
There are sixteen banking establishments in it, besides stock and bill brokers. 

Mr. Gilbart states that the first <T run" in the history of banking in England occur- 
red in 1667, twenty-seven years before the establishment of the bank of England. 
The Dutch admiral, De Ruyter, had taken Sheerness, and had sent his vice-admiral, 
Van Ghent, up the Medway to destroy Chatham. The greatest alarm prevailed in 
London ; and we learn from Pepys's " Diary," that confusion and imbecility prevailed 
in the councils of the government. The citizens ran to their goldsmiths or bankers 
to withdraw their money. Various efforts were made to restore confidence. There 
was another extraordinary "run" in 1745, on the bank of England, when the army 
of the Pretender was rapidly marching on the metropolis. A public meeting was 
Aeld, and upward of a thousand merchants signed a declaration expressing their read- 
.ness to take bank-notes. At that critical period the bank paid cash in silver, instead 
of gold, to gain time. A still more remarkable " run," from the consequences which 
it produced, was in 1797. Fears of foreign invasion prevailed, the government re- 
quired money, and public confidence was shaken. On Saturday, the 25th of Febru- 
ary, 1797, there was only 1,270,000/. in coin and bullion remaining in the coffers of 
the bank. On Monday an order in council was distributed among the crowd assem- 
bled at the bank to demand gold, intimating that government had exempted the bank 
from payments in cash. It was then that notes for so small a sum as one pound 



?84 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




LONDON. 



385 



were authorized to be issued. The restriction of cash payments continued during 
the long and expensive war. 

The bank made an effort to return to cash payments from 1817 to 1819; but 
it was not till the first of May, 1821, that payments in specie legally and per- 
manently commenced. Since that time, except for a short period at the end of 
1825, bank-of-England notes under five pounds have been withdrawn from circula- 
tion, and ultimately all bank-notes under five pounds were prohibited throughout 
England. 

Many of our readers will remember what is termed the " panic" of 1825. The 
" run" on the bank of England was the greatest that had taken place since 1797. In 
April or May, 1825, the bank had about ten millions of bullion, and by November it 
was reduced to one million /three hundred thousand pounds. During the " run," gold 




Dividend Office, Bank of England. 

25 



386 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

was handed over when called ior, in bags of twenty-five sovereigns each. But at 
that critical time, says a bank director, " bullion came in, and the mint coined ; they 
worked double tides — in short, they were at work night and day: we were perpetu- 
ally receiving gold from abroad, and coin from the mint." In one day the bank dis- 
counted four thousand two hundred bills. On the 8th of December, 1825, the dis- 
counts at the bank were 7,500,000/. ; on the 15th, they were 11,500,000/.; on the 
22d, 14,500,000/. ; and on the 29th, they were 15,000,000/. The annual average of 
commercial paper under discount at the bank was 2,946,500/. in 1795; in 1800, it 
was 6,401,900/.; from 1805 to 1816, it varied from 11,000,000/. to 20,000,000/.; 
from 1817 to 1826, it varied from about 2,000,000/. to 6,000,000/. ; in 1830, it was 
only 919,900/., and in 1831, 1,533,600/. The annual average of loss by bad <lebts on 
discounts has been, from 1795 to 1831, both inclusive, 31,696/. 

The bank of England acts as the chief agent of the government in the manage- 
ment of the national debt. It receives and registers transfers of stock from one public 
creditor to another, and makes the quarterly payments of the dividends. For this 
purpose it employs more than four hundred clerks, porters, and messengers; and, 
previous to the passing of the act of 1833, received from the public, in payment for 
this service, the sum of two hundred and forty-eight thousand pounds per annum. 
Of this amount, one hundred and twenty thousand pounds per annum is now abated 
in terms of that act. 

No bank having more than six partners can issue bills or notes payable on demand 
in London, or within sixty-five miles of it, during the continuance of the charter of 
the bank of England. The act of parliament of 1833, which renewed the charter, 
made bank-of-England notes above five pounds a " legal tender," except at the bank 
itself, or its branches. Previous to that year, the notes of country bankers were pay- 
able in gold : they may now be paid either in gold or bank-of-England notes ; and 
these notes are also just as valid in all payments as gold. Private banks in London, 
having not more than six partners, may issue notes ; but they could not do it profita- 
bly in competition with such a powerful and stable body as the bank of England. 
The profits of the private bankers are derived in a great measure from the discount- 
ing of mercantile bills. They do not allow interest for deposites ; for the depositors 
being chiefly persons in business, whose- money in such a place as London is not per- 
mitted to lie still, the profit from its use would not justify the allowance of interest. 

On the northeast side of Tower Hill is situated the building erected some years 
since from the designs, and under the direction of Mr. Smirke, for conducting the 
business of the coinage, which was at that time removed from the Tower. " The 
royal, or national Mint," it is stated by Britton and Braylay, " was formerly an ap- 
pendage to tru- Tower, and appears to have been established there in or before the 
time of Edward I., when, according to Madox, there were no less than thirty furnaces 
employed. The privilege of coining was frequently granted to corporate and ec- 
clesiastical bodies, and to private noblemen ; which occasioning great inconvenience, 
it was enacted in the time of Queen Elizabeth, that all the provincial mints should 
be suppressed, and no coinage allowed but at the royal Mint, in the Tower. This 
law, with the exceptions of two cases of emergency, in the time of Charles the First 
and William the Third, was observed until about twenty years ago." In con- 
sequence, then, of the vast increase of business in this department, arising from the 
augmented population of the country, and other causes, the government gave orders 
for the erection of the present edifice. It is a handsome structure, in the Grecian style 
of architecture, having a centre and wings, and an elevation of three stories. The 
centre is ornamented with columns (over which is a pediment containing the British 
arms), and the wings with pilasters. The roof is enclosed by an elegant balustrade. 
The principal officers of the establishment are provided with houses on each side 
of the building, which, being of brick, do not harmonize with the principal edifice. 
The interior is lighted with gas, and every advantage derivable from mechanical 
contrivance has been here introduced to facilitate the operation of coinage ; but no 
visiter is admitted to inspect the works without a special order from the master of 
the Mint. 

"England," said the late Mr. Rothschild, in 1832, "is, in general, the bank for 
the whole world — I mean, that all transactions in India — in China — in Germany — 
in Russia — and in the whole world — are all guided here and settled through this 
country." 

The centre of operations — the heart, as it were — of this " bank for the whole 






LONDON. 



387 







388 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

world," is the money-market of London. And as with the idea of a market we 
generally associate that of a market-place, so, in speaking of the London money- 
market, we naturally think of that particular locality where the greater part of ils 
transactions are carried on — the bank, the royal exchange, the stock exchange (which 
lie within a few paces of each other), and the surrounding neighborhood. This will 
include the banking-houses of Lombard street, Lothbury, and the Poultry (the con- 
tinuation of Cheapside from Bucklersbury and the old Jewry to Cornhill, is termed 
the " Poultry") ; the counting-houses of the bullion, bill, and discount brokers, of the 
stock and share brokers, and the places of business of those establishments where 
wealthy individuals, under the general title of " merchants," without any other 
specific designation, carry on many of those operations which come more immediately 
within the sphere of the money-market. 

The royal exchange lies between Cornhill and Threadneedle street, its principal 
front being toward Cornhill. Threadneedle street, which is narrow, separates it 
from the eastern or upper end of the bank. Bartholomew Lane (one of the four 
streets which isolate the bank) extends from the Threadneedle street front of the 
Royal exchange to the street which at one end is termed Lothbury, and at the other 
Throgmorton street. The one side of Bartholomew Lane is formed by the eastern 
front of the bank, the other by a connected range of buildings, a part of which is a 
church, and part is occupied chiefly by stockholders. In about the centre of this 
range is Capel court, where is the principal entrance to the stock exchange: there 
are other entrances by courtways or passages from Throgmorton street. At the 
bottom of Bartholomew Lane, and the corner of Throgmorton street, is a handsome 
building termed the Auction Mart, erected about thirtv-six years ago, as a kind of 
central establishment for the sale of estates, annuities, shares, &c, by public auction. 

Very great improvements have recently been effected in this neighborhood, and 
more are in progress. Two fine streets, in particular, have been opened, and their 
frontages are occupied by handsome ranges of buildings. Still, the stranger will 
find much to convince him that trade and commerce here have been more chary of 
space than to spend it on spacious streets. Let him try to thread some of those 
narrow passages, which, at first sight, might appear to him to lead only to some 
private house or private establishment : he will be surprised to find them crowded 
thoroughfares, communicating with one narrow street or another. Here, in these 
seemingly out-of-the-way places, are numerous shops, whose occupants are in pos- 
session of a snug and money-making trade — taverns and coffeehouses with steady 
frequenters — places of business where much may be transacted in the brief hours of 
a business-day. Narrow passages, communicating with streets, are numerous in all 
the older parts of London : but those which lead from Threadneedle street, Throg- 
morton street, Cornhill, &c, &c, are more especially calculated to excite surprise in 
a stranger, from the extreme narrowness of some of them, and their seeming ob- 
scurity, compared with the crowds passing through, and the business which is 
transacted in them. 

There are three hundred and thirty-four stockbroking establishments (many of 
them firms with two or more partners) in London, whose places of business are in 
Threadneedle street, Bartholomew Lane, at the Royal exchange, in Lothbury and 
Throgmorton street, Cornhill, and Lombard street. To these we must add thirty- 
four bullion, bill, and discount brokers, about two hundred and forty ship and in- 
surance brokers, and about one thousand " merchants," some of whom deal in bullion 
and bills to a considerable extent, whose places of business are all within five and 
ten minutes' walk of the bank and Royal exchange. And this is, without reckoning 
the bankers, the general and commercial agents, the colonial, cotton, silk, and wool 
brokers, the corn and coal merchants, the solicitors and notaries, the tradesmen and 
shopkeepers, all within the same neighborhood, as well as the offices of great in- 
surance companies, railway companies, steampacket companies, &c. 

The Royal exchange was erected originally by Sir Thomas Gresham, the corpora- 
tion of the city having given the ground on which to build it. The idea of the build- 
ing, and its name, were imported from the continent; it was termed the Burse, 01 
Bourse. But two years afier its erection, Queen Elizabeth having visited it in great 
state, cause it to be proclaimed by sound of trumpet, that its name should be " the, 
Royal exchange." Exactly a century after the erection of this building it was destroy- 
ed in the gre»t fire. The present building was erected immediately afterward, at 



LONDON. 



389 




390 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

an expense of nearly sixty thousand pounds ; a few years ago, it underwent a very 
substantial repair. 

The ground floors c>f the Royal exchange are occupied by stockbrokers, insurance 
brokers, stationers, newsvenders, music-sellers, opticians, tobacconists, &c, their shops 
fronting the streets. On entering the gateway, either from Cornhill or Threadneedle 
street, we arrive in a handsome quadrangle, in the centre of which is a statue of 
Charles II. There are statues of the kings of England in niches round the court, 
above the paved colonnade or piazza. This piazza affords a shelter and promenade 
to the merchants who meet here to transact business. From the piazza there are 
staircases which lead to the upper part of the Royal exchange, over the shops. Here 
a gallery extends round the quadrangle, leading to offices occupied by merchants, 
underwriters, the Royal exchange assurance office, &c, and by the society of under- 
writers at Lloyd's subscription coffeehouse. There are two suites of rooms in this 
establishment ; one open to the public, the other reserved for the subscribers. In 
order to become a subscriber the candidate must be proposed by six members, and 
afterward accepted by the managing committee. " The establishment of insurances 
at Lloyd's," says the Baron Dupin, " has rendered signal services both to the com- 
merce of the British empire and to that of other states. The society has agents in 
most of the principal ports of all parts of the world ; it makes public the events, both 
commercial and maritime, which it learns through their means: these accounts are 
received by the public witn a confidence which nothing for more than a century has 
tended to destroy." " At Lloyd's," says Von Raumer, " close to the dial which tells 
the hour, is one still more interesting here, which tells the direction of the wind, and 
is connected with the weathercock on the roof. Intelligence of the arrivals and de- 
partures of ships, of the existence and fate of vessels in all parts of the world ; reports 
from consuls and commissioners resident in every foreign town, newspapers and 
gazettes from every country are here to be found, arranged in such perfect and con- 
venient order, that the entire actual state of the commercial world may be seen in a 
few minutes, and any of the countless threads that converge to this centre may be 
followed out with more or less minuteness. The whole earth, or the whole com- 
mercial machinery of the earth, appeared to me to be placed in the hands of the 
directors of Lloyd's coffeehouse." 

Equal in importance to the insurances is the business transacted on the Royal ex- 
change in bills of exchange and in the importation and exportation of bullion — i. e., 
gold and silver, either in coin or in any other form. The late Mr. Rothschild was 
in the ordinary habit, when times were quiet, of buying, week by week, from eighty 
thousand pounds to one hundred thousand pounds worth of bills drawn for goods 
shipped from England. He gave his testimony that, in general, business on the 
Royal exchange was done very fairly. Dealers in bills purchase them either to get a 
commission, or in return for goods imported. Thus bills drawn by the trading and 
manufacturing towns, as Liverpool, Manchester, &c, and which come to every 
banker and merchant in London, are bought, and sent abroad. Against these, the 
dealers in bills buy on the continent bills drawn on England for commodities im- 
ported. If there be not a sufficient quantity of foreign bills to meet British bills — 
that is, if they have sent out more goods than have been imported, and thus put the 
foreign merchants in their debt, then the dealers, not being able to get bills, must 
bring in gold, from Paris, from Hamburgh, or from wherever it is requisite. But if 
the reverse is the case, if British merchants are in debt to foreign merchants, then 
the deficiency of bills must be made up by drawing gold from the bank to send 
abroad. This is the state of things which is watched by the bullion and bill brokers, 
that they may make a profit either by buying bills, or importing and exporting bullion. 
When commodities are cheap in England, it generally turns the exchanges in 
their favor, as they then get a greater number of customers than usual, who buy from 
Britain what at the time they can not get so cheap elsewhere. 

The national debt of Great Britain amounts at present to between 700,000,000/. 
and 800,000,000/., on which an annual interest of 28,000,000/. is paid to the creditors. 
There are probably two millions or three millions of people directly concerned in the 
receipt of this annual interest — for though the debt stands in the names of only about 
two hundred and eighty thousand individuals, many of these are merely trustees, 
directors, or managers, acting for societies, associations, &c, numbers of whom have 
what is called "money in the funds" — i. e., a claim on government for money lent. 
The creditors can not demand their money back, for the original condition by which 



LONDON. 39i 

the money was borrowed, and the stock created, does not provide for paying off the 
principal ; but the annual interest must be paid. A certain proportion of the debt 
exists in the form of terminable annuities — that is, annuities terminating at a given 
time. Another portion is called the floating or unfunded debt, as it exists in the shape 
of exchequer bills — a kind of paper money issued by government. But hy far the 
largest portion of the debt is funded or permanent. In order to accommodate the 
creditors, government enables them to sell their claims to whoever will buy them — 
for more than the full amount if they can get it, or for less if they can not help it. 
For this purpose an establishment is kept up at the bank of England called the 
transfer office. When a creditor sells his claim to any other person, the transaction 
is called a "transfer of stock," because the right to receive the annual interest is 
transferred from one person to another. Transfers of stock are almost all effected 
through the agency of stock brokers, who charge one eighth per cent., or 2s. 6d. for 
every 100/. transferred. 

All the more respectable of. the stock brokers are members of the stock exchange 
in Capel court, Bartholomew Lane, into which they must be elected by ballot. No 
person is allowed to enter or transact business in this building but members. When 
a bargain has been concluded, the parties step over to the transfer office at the bank, 
where certain simple forms are gone through, the transfer clerks verifying and ratify- 
ing the transaction. There are certain days in the week allotted to each description 
of stock, on which only transfers can be made. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

COMMERCE— THE RIVER AND PORT, AND THE DOCKS. 

From the sea up to within a few miles of London, the banks of the Thames pre 
sent but little of picturesque scenery. The river flows through a flat marshy level, 
which, especially on the Essex side, has a monotonous aspect. A range of hills, of 
small elevations, runs from Gravesend to Greenwich, at a varying distance from the 
bank, and this preserves the scenery from being altogether tame and uninteresting. 
But it is the river itself which is the great source of interest — the consideration of 
what it has been and of what it is. It has been a commercial highway for these 
eighteen hundred years past — it' is at present the most important one in the world ! 

On arriving off Gravesend, which is opposite Tilbury fort, and twenty-five miles 
from London, we begin to remark, more particularly, the great traffic on the Thames. 
Hence, upward, vessels are lying at anchor here and there in the stream, or 
are moving by the aid of the wind ; some great and heavy-laden ship is being towed 
up or down ; and steamers, large and small, are every now and then rushing past. 
On reaching and passing Woolwich, the interest rapidly increases. In a short time 
we are at the entrance of what is legally the port of London (that is, the space com- 
prehended'in the harbor regulations), which extends from London bridge down to 
Bugsby's Hole, immediately below Blackwall, a distance of nearly six miles and a 
half. The actual port, or harbor, known under the names of the Lower and Upper 
pools, is only about four miles in length. Turning round by Blackwall, with its 
taverns whose windows overhang the water, Greenwich opens distinctly on the 
view, with its noble and palace-like hospital, and its back-ground of park and' 
woody hill, crowned by the observatory. Opposite Greenwich and Deptford is the 
marshy peninsula of the Isle of Dogs, nearly round which the river makes a great, 
sweep, from north to south, and from south to north. There is one of the harbor- 
masters in his boat; and that flag, floating from the flag-staff over the harbor-mas- 
ter's office at Greenwich, is the " collier's detention flag," warning the colliers lying 
moored in the river that there is yet no room for them in the lower pool, and that 
they must " bide their time." When the flag is hauled down, the first in turn move 
upward ; and as soon as the allotted spaces are occupied the flag is hauled up again. 

We are now in Limehouse Reach, and entering the Lower pool. In the distance 



392 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




LONDON. 393 

are the numerous spires of London, and the dome of St. Paul's — hefore us a " forest 
of masts," the density of which, at particular seasons of the year, is truly astonish- 
ing to the " inland" man who looks on such a scene for the first time. 

We will not tarry a long time at the entrance of the Upper pool. It begins 
from about over the spot where the Thames tunnel is excavated — or rather, we 
should say, it ends there, its commencement being at London bridge. On our right 
hand going up — the Middlesex side — isWapping ; on the left or Surrey side, Rother- 
hithe. Now we are passing the entrances of the London docks, and the St. Kathe- 
rine's docks are marked out by its lofty warehouses ; adjoining it is the " time-worn" 
Tower; a few minutes more and we are off the customhouse, and may be landed on 
its quay — the only quay in the port of London on which the public can walk, with 
the exception of a small one in front of the Tower. 

The collection of the " king's toll" or customs — which used to be a main de- 
pendence of royalty — was managed very bunglingly in former times. The " cus- 
tomers," as the collectors of customs are termed in old acts of parliament, were in 
the habit of cheating both king and merchant; the one, by giving false certificates 
of the duty being paid to such merchants as they chose to favor, and the other by 
sometimes giving no discharges or receipts at all, or at least until they had com- 
pelled a second payment of the same duty. The 11 Henry VI., cap. 15, 16, is 
directed against these practices. A member of the Grocer's company, who was 
also sheriff of London, named John Churchman, gets the credit of having first got 
up the convenience of a customhouse at the port of London — this was toward the 
end of the fourteenth century. Churchman's customhouse was only for the " troy- 
nage" or weighing of wools — long after its erection the various customs were col- 
lected at different parts of the city in an irregular manner. The commencement of 
the* present system may be dated from Elizabeth's reign, when a new and more 
capacious customhouse was built, which was burned in the great fire of 1666. Sir 
Christopher Wren built another, which was also burned in 1718, and its successor 
shared a like fate in 1814, though not before it had been determined to pull it down 
as inconvenient, and erect a new one in its stead. The present structure lies a little 
westward of the site of the former one, nearer London bridge. The first stone of 
it was laid in 1813, before the fire happened, which consumed the previous house. 

The Upper pool is a great resort of the steamboats connected with London ; out of 
the entire number plying, there were, in 1836, no less than ninety making their 
arrivals and departures to and from it ; seventy coasters, and twenty foreign. But 
here is one of what are termed the small steamers coming up ; she plies between 
Woolwich and Hungerford market, and will pass under the bridge. Although this 
is quite a common thing now-a-days, there is still inducement enough for the young 
folks, ay, and some of the old folks too, to run from one side of the bridge to the 
other, to watch the vessel emerging from under the arch, and receive its salute of 
smoke. In going up to Hungerford market, she passes under London, Southwark, 
Blackfriars, and Waterloo bridges. 

The commerce of the port of London, which had been gradually increasing during 
the first half of the eighteenth century, outgrew in the second half the existing ac- 
commodation of the harbor. The "legal quays"— quays at which vessels were 
allowed to land their cargoes, and at which customhouse officers were stationed— 
continued the same in number and extent as in the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; and 
though to these were added a number of " sufferance wharves," they were altogether 
totally inadequate to the wants of the shipping. The port, at particular seasons, 
was often nearly blocked up by fleets of merchantmen, many of them lying at anchor 
in the middle of the stream, and discharging their cargoes into lighters and barges. 
The only dock at that time was a small basin on the south side of the river, called 
Greenland basin (since enlarged, and the name altered into the Commercial docks), 
which was used only by a few vessels in the Greenland fishery. The warehouse 
accommodation, too, at the legal quays and wharves, was quite insufficient for the 
purposes of a trade and commerce, expanded with extraordinary and almost unex- 
ampled rapidity. 

Along with this want of accommodation in the harbor, there existed a system ot 
pillage and depredation, which, though it was in full operation only forty years ago, 
we at the present day can scarcely think credible. The main body of depredators 
was composed of the lightermen, watermen, and laborers ; but in not a few instances 
their practices were winked at and shared in by some of the revenue officers, num- 



394 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




LONDON. 895 

bers of the crews, and sometimes too by the mates and even the captains of vessels. 
These were backed by a host of receivers, who, either as. publicaus or as keepers of 
shops for the sale of marine stores, metal, and rags, earned on an extensive business 
in stolen property. 

The proprietor of a cargo of oil from the British colonies in America, which was 
discharging into lighters in the river, was annoyed by unaccountable deficiencies, 
and determined to watch and discover the way in which his property was abstracted. 
The lightermen, coming up with a portion of the cargo, wilfully contrived to lose 
the tide, and took the opportunity of turning all the casks with their bungs down- 
ward. The proprietor at the quay caused a part of the ceiling of the lighter to be 
taken up, and filled fifteen casks with oil taken out of the hold, much to the provo- 
cation of the lightermen, who vehemently affirmed that all leakage was nothing but 
their fair and honest perquisites. 

The captain of a ship, who insisted on searching a gang of lumpers — laborers 
employed in discharging cargoes — before they left the deck of his vessel, was 
allowed to do so. While engaged in this, a barrel of sugar, his private property, 
which stood in the cabin, was emptied in a few minutes into bags, and handed 
through the window into a waterman's boat, and carried clear off almost before his 
face. 

In the month of October, 1798, a lighter was robbed of five casks of American 
ashes, of the value of 50/. The contents were carried in bags to the house of an 
opulent receiver, who sat up two different nights for the purpose. The thieves were 
remunerated by receiving about a fourth of the value, besides being regaled with a 
supper and liquor, and the watchman received half-a-crown for his civility in taking 
no notice of the transaction ! 

These are but specimens of the way in which the commerce of London suffered, 
and which, along with the want of accommodation, led to the establishment of the 
Thames police and of the docks. Yet it is astonishing to remark how long the 
annoyances were borne before remedies were provided. The merchants of London 
held meetings about the matter in 1793 ; and parliament took the subject up in 
1796, by instituting a formal inquiry. Nothing, however, was done as to the estab- 
lishment of docks till 1799, partly owing to dissensions among the merchants as to 
the proper mode of carrying out the plans, and partly to the great opposition which 
was made by wharfingers and others interested in keeping the shipping wholly in 
the river. The West India merchants, who were the greatest sufferers from pillage, 
determined on having docks for their own trade ; and were powerful enough to get 
their bill for the construction of the West India docks passed in 1799, in which was 
a compulsory clause compelling for a certain period, all West India vessels to go 
into the docks. In the following year 1800, the other merchants got the bill passed 
for the establishment of the London docks (or rather dock, for the smaller dock was 
not made for many years afterward), and in it, also, was a compulsory clause, re- 
quiring, for a certain period, all vessels laden with certain kinds of cargoes — wine, 
brandy, &c. — to enter. The bill for making the East India docks was passed in 
1803. Nothing further was done in the way of establishing wet docks, with the ex- 
ception of converting the Greenland basin into the Commercial docks, until 1827, 
when the St. Katherine's docks were begun, which were opened toward the end of 
1828, their construction having been carried on with extraordinary rapidity. 

Some idea of the excitement produced by the supposed diversion of the shipping 
from the river into docks may be obtained from the fact, that the sum demanded as 
compensation (without reckoning the parchasing of land and houses, which cost the 
London dock proprietors especially an enormous sum) was nearly 4,000,000/. ster- 
ling. But of this only 677,382/. was paid, all the rest being disallowed. The govern- 
ment bought the legal quays for 486,087/., and granted, as compensation to persons 
having vested interests in the "mooring-chains" of the harbor, a sum of 138,791/. 
The amount paid out of the consolidated fund, by virtue of the several acts for im- 
proving the port of London, and for constructing docks, was, including the purchase 
of the legal quays, 1,681,685/. 

We may commence our inspection of the docks with those last constructed and 
nearest to London — the St. Katherine's. For many years great jealousy and pre- 
caution were exercised at the other docks in the admission of strangers and visiters, 
who were required to produce tickets, or orders for admission from a director at the 
gates. But all this is now done away ; the gates of the different docks are freely 



396 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




<^Q 



LONDON. 



397 




398 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

open during working hours lo the passing stranger, the vigilance of the gate-keepers, 
and of the dock-constables or watchmen, being considered sufficient for the protec- 
tion of the varied and valuable property within. 

Although the different docks have each their characteristics, they may be de- 
scribed generally as basins for the reception of shipping, surrounded by warehouses 
and enclosed by walls. The St. Katherine's docks lie immediately below the tower 
of London. The appearance of this establishment differs in many respects from 
that of the other docks. Beauty has been sacrificed to utility. Here are no spacious 
quays, nor long ranges of warehouses ; and though the area enclosed is twenty-four 
acres, the place has a look of being crowded and confined. But the warehouses 
make up in height and depth what they want in length. They are six stories high, 
and are massive and capacious ; the vaults below are extensive depositories. The 
ground-floors of the warehouses toward the docks are eighteen feet high, open, 
and supported by pillars; a contrivance by which labor and space are saved, for 
vessels in the docks can come close to the warehouses, and discharge their cargoes 
into them, without the necessity of the goods being laid down on a quay in their 
transit. The docks, of which there are two, with an entrance basin, are capable of 
containing from 150 to 160 ships, besides craft. The lock leading from the river is 
195 feet long and 45 feet broad, and is crossed by a swing bridge 23 feet wide. The 
depth of water at spring tides is 28 feet in the lock, and thus ships of six hundred 
and eight hundred tons can come up the river with a certainty of admission into the 
docks. Altogether, though the St. Katherine's docks are deficient in extent or" 
spaciousness, as compared with the others, the solidity of the buildings, the com- 
pleteness and ingenuity of the mechanical apparatus and arrangements, and the 
bustle and activity within, are calculated to make a strong impression on the visiter's 
mind. 

From the St. Katherine's we can enter, crossing Nightingale lane, the London 
docks. This is a magnificent establishment ; it covers upward of one hundred acres 
of ground, and cost in its construction about three millions of pounds sterling. There 
is cellerage here for nearly sixty thousand pipes of wines, and the tobacco warehouses 
can hold twenty-four thousand hogsheads. The two docks, the larger and the 
smaller, can accommodate eight hundred ships. From the extent of the place, and 
the capacity of its warehouses (which are inferior in height and massive ponderous- 
ness to those of the St. Katherine's, though imposing from their range), there is less 
of bustle and seeming confusion than in the docks which we had previously in- 
spected. 

From the London to the West-India docks there is a walk of about a mile and a 
half. If the extent of the London docks surprised us, that of the West-India docks 
will astonish still more. The entire ground occupied by them is about two hundred 
and ninety-five acres ! This includes the canal across the isle of Dogs, made by the 
corporation of the city of London at the same time that the West-India docks were 
constructing ; the object of it was to enable vessels to avoid the circuit of the river, 
those availing themselves of it being required to pay a toll. But the speculation 
proved unsuccessful, and the canal was sold to the West-India dock company, who 
have turned it into a dock for wood-laden vessels. There have been at one time in 
these docks, on the quays, under the sheds, and in the warehouses, as much as twen- 
ty millions of pounds worth of colonial produce — sugar, coffee, rum and wine, ma- 
hogany, dyewoods, &c, &c. The West-India docks have been an exceedingly suc- 
cessful speculation — the shareholders receiving for many years an annual dividend 
of ten per. cent., while, at the same time, a large sum was accumulating as a reserve 
fund. Competition has lowered the rate of profit. 
•The East-India docks, at Blackwall, though inferior in extent to the London and 
the West-India, are yet sufficiently capacious. They are surrounded by lofty walls. 
Both the West-India and the East-India docks have two basins, termed import and 
export docks — their names denote their uses. " Nothing," says Baron Dupin, " ap- 
pears more simple than the idea of forming separate docks for the loading and un- 
loading of importations and exportations ; yet, infinite as the advantages which it 
affords are, in preventing confusion and the frauds which it naturally produces, the 
English constructed docks for more than a century before this idea struck them." 
The East-India import dock has a superfices of nineteen acres, the export ten, and 
he basin three : having to receive large vessels, they were constructed so as to have 
never less than twenty-three feet of water. 



LONDON. 39y 

The number of individuals who pour out of the docks when the hours of closing 
them have arrived is not a little remarkable. Revenue officers, clerks, warehouse- 
keepers, engineers, coopers, and laborers, of every grade, seem actually to block up 
the way. There may be about, on an average, five thousand employed in the St 
Kaiherine's, London, and the West and East India docks. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

TRADE.— LUDGATE STREET, AND THE SHOPS OF THE " CITY."— RE- 
GENT STREET, AND THE SHOPS OF THE "WEST END." 

If we take the number of " establishments" — that is, of counting-houses, ware- 
houses, chambers, shops, workshops, and other places in London, where individuals 
or companies carry on business — at sixty thousand, we can hardly calculate the num- 
ber of the working population employed in them at less than one million. Very few 
persons can carry ou business in a counting-house or shop without the assistance of 
an adult or a youth : the humblest milliner or straw-hat-maker has in general one or 
two apprentices ; some single shops give out work to twenty, forty, or eighty indi- 
viduals — in many workshops there are hundreds employed. Fifteen persons to each 
establishment would make nine hundred thousand ; we are surely, therefore, not over 
the mark in assuming the number of the working population of London at one mill- 
ion, including old and young, male and female, but excluding domestic servants. If 
the earnings and spendings of this million are, on an average, twenty shillings each 
weekly, it will amount to a greater sum annually than the present annual revenue 
of Great Britain. 

If one half of the entire number of establishments consists of shops — which allows 
about three shops to each street in London — and each shop, in its retail business, 
draws on an average eight pounds daily (some small shops can get on by drawing 
from one to two pounds a day/others must draw twenty, thirty, or forty pounds), we 
have about two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, or about seventy-two millions of 
pounds yearly, circulating in the retail trade of London : two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand pounds employed daily in the retail trade of London, is two shillings and six- 
pence to each of the two millions of population. 

About one half of the entire number of London establishments range under the 
three general heads of food, clothing, and habitation. There are about eight thou- 
sand five hundred engaged in the supply of food, five thousand in liquors, eight thou- 
sand in clothing, from eight hundred to one thousand in coal, three thousand in the 
building, sale, and letting of houses, and four thousand five hundred in the supply of 
household furniture and decorations of every kind. By classing food and liquor estab* 
lishments together, we have nearly fourteen thousand under the head of food, and 
only eight thousand under clothing ; but the subdivisions of employment under cloth- 
ing, as might naturally be expected, are greater than those under food. The other 
half of the total number of London establishments comprehends those engaged in the 
general departments of commerce, the dealers in the materials of intelligence and 
education, and of science and art, the workers in the finer metals, the practisers in 
law and medicine, and the gratifiers of wants and wishes connected with recreation 
and amusement. 

The old habit or custom, which is probably coeval with the existence of cities, of 
particular trades or professions settling down in particular streets or districts, and 
which thenceforward become, by positive or tacit consent, appropriated to them, is 
in a great degree disappearing from London. The fishmonger and the silk mercer, 
the confectioner and the butcher, the tallow-chandler and the tailor, the chinaman 
and the cheesemonger, occupy alternate shops. Some relics still remain of the old 
habit. Paternoster Row is still much occupied by booksellers (see engraving p. 400) 
and Lombard street by bankers ; Long Acre by coachmakers, and Cranbourne allej 
by straw-hat-makers ; Holywell street and Monmouth street uphold their old repu 



400 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




Paternoster Row. 

tation of bein": mainly occupied by those who sell old clothes for new ; and Brokers' 
alley is crowded by dealers in second-hand furniture. Other s'reets and places have 
distinct characteristics, though occupied by shops of various kinds. There are sev- 
eral spots which have become, by a kind of prescription, markets for the working 
f»opulaiion ; and there provisions can be bought much cheaper, though it may be a 
ittle coarser, than in other places. Two of these spots are more especially worthy 
of notice — a particular part of Tottenham Court road, at the west end, and a street 
called, rather singularly, the New Cut (ii is a cut of some years' existence), on the 
Surrey side of the water, in Lambeth. The latter is worth a visit on a Saturday even- 
ing, during the fall of the year particularly. The street is occupied by butchers, ba- 



LONDON. 



401 







402 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

kers, dealers in pork, beef, ham, and sausages, furniture-brokers, old-clothesmen, 
pawnbrokers, and ginshops. When evening has closed, a number of itinerant vend- 
ers of wares take up positions on the street, calculating on receiving their share of 
the Saturday-evening's spendings. Here and there are tin machines, some of them 
even elegantly finished off with brass mountings, each containing a fire, while the 
steam issues from a little pipe or funnel in each. The proprietors of these machines 
make the street resound with their cries of "all hot !" the objects of their sale being 
hot potatoes and butter, or pies. Some of them, either from the ambition of rivalry 
or stimulated by the hope of profit (a hot potato and butter are sold for a halfpenny), 
hang little lamps of variegated colors round their machines. The barrow and basket 
men and women shield their candles from the wind by lanterns of tinted paper. Up 
to twelve o'clock the street has a most animated, nay, a brilliant appearance. Fam- 
ilies that, from the nature or the remuneration of their occupations, can not dine to- 
gether but once a week, are now busily occupied in getting " something comfortable" 
for the next day's dinner. It might be a scene of unmixed enjoyment to him who 
c,an sympathize with the humblest of his fellows, were it not for drawbacks. The 
ginshops get too large a share, in some cases, of the week's wages. 
] Before the " west end" had sprung into existence as an actual second London, 
Ludgate hill was a great resort of the ladies when they went out " a-shopping." In 
the " Female Tattler," of 1709, it is said: " This afternoon some ladies, having an 
opinion of my fancy in clothes, desired me to accompany them to Ludgate hill, which 
Ltake to be as agreeable an amusement as a lady can pass away three or four hours 
in. The shops are perfect gilded theatres, the 1 variety of wrought silks, so many 
changes of fine scenes, and the mercers are the performers in the opera ; and instead 
of * vivitur ingenio,' you have, in gold capitals, 'No trust by retail.' They are the 
sweetest, fairest, nicest, dished-out creatures, and by their elegant address and soft 
speeches, you would guess them to be Italians. As people glance within their doors, 
they salute you with 'garden silks, ladies' Italian silks, brocades, tissues, cloth of 
sjlver or cloth of gold, very fine mantua silks, right Geneva velvet, English velvei, 
vielvet embossed.' And to the meaner sort, ' fine thread satins, both striped and plain, 
fijne mohair silk, satinets, burdets, Persianets, Norwich crapes, anterines, silks for 
hoods and scarfs, hair camlets, druggets, or sagathies, gentlemen's nightgowns ready 
made, shallons, durances, and right Scotch plaids.' " 

J The characteristics of the principal streets of the metropolis might be summed up 
in a f^w words: Regent street, a portion of Oxford street and Piccadilly, with Pali- 
Mall, St. James's street, and Bond street, for showy grandeur and elegance ; the 
Strand, Fleet street, Ludgate hill, Cbeapside, and Cornhill, for more of substance 
man ostentation ; and Holborn for a medium between " west-end" elegance and " city" 
solidity. Until recently, the great distinction between the shops of the west-end and 
the city was, in the latter, an absence of external attractions as compared with the 
West-end. But now, on Ludgate hill, and in St. Paul's Churchyard, there are estab- 
lishments which, for magnificence, equal, it they do not surpass, anything; the west- 
end has to show. In these gorgeous shops, which are occupied by silk-mercers, India 
shawls and scarfs of the richest texture, French-worked cambrics, Brussels lace, and 
silks of every quality and hue, are spread out in profusion ; mirrors increase the effect, 
and immense plate-glass in the windows, set in brass frames guarded by brass fences, 
qxhibit the goods "in the best possible light." Ludgate hill and street (it is Ludgate 
bull from Fleet street to the church, and Ludgate street from the church to St. Paul's 
Churchyard) is occupied by silk-mercers, jewellers, printsellers, booksellers, &c." 
] The " east end" of London knows little or nothing of those elegant modern refine- 
ments in shopkeeping which, under the names of bazars and arcades, are familiar 
to the " west end," and to various provincial towns. The shopkeepers of the city, 
{hough many of them are bestowing much of splendid decoration on their premises, 
still act on the maxim that a shop is neither more nor less than a shop, a place for 
positive buying and selling, and not intended to accommodate a congregation of 
hungers. Bazars and arcades are, therefore, more intended for those who have 
time and money at their disposal, and are, occasionally, uncertain how to spend 
Either, than for the sober, specific, earnest purposes of trade. Thus, what is sold in 
{hese places belong principally to the lighter and more elegant branches of traffic* 
the pastry-cook may show himself among the sellers, but the baker and the butcher 
Would be out of their element. In the shops of the arcade, and on the tables and 
counters of the bazar, are spread out whatever is thought likely to attract the eye, 



LONDON. 



403 




404 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

and tempt to purchase. Hither comes the jeweller, with his rings, and chains, and 
seals, and watches ; the perfumer has his oils, and combs, and brushes ; the toyman 
with his dancing-jacks, and ever-galloping horsemen, tiny trumpels, drums, and 
violins, Cliinese puzzles, and musical-boxes; the tobacconist offers his cigars and 
scented snuffs; the stationer and the music-seller exhibit prints, music, and musical- 
instruments ; while the shoemaker, milliner, and bonnet-maker, display the neatest 
proofs of their respective handicrafts. 

The first arcade we meet with in proceeding westward is the Lowther arcade, 
which runs from the Strand to Adelaide street, at the back of St. Martin's church. 
This is a fine passage, lofty and spacious, and lighted by ornamented circular sky- 
lights. The Burlington arcade, in Piccadilly, is narrower but much longer than the 
Lowther arcade. It is favorably situated near the thoroughfares of the " west end," 
and is itself a considerable thoroughfare. In Pimlico, where, about twenty years 
ago, were fields, now occupieu by the fine houses which constitute Belgrave square, 
Wilton Crescent, &c, there is the Pantechnicon — a spirited attempt to combine on 
one spot all the supplies requisite for a rich and fashionable population. The Pan- 
technicon is a compound of the arcade and the bazar, and aims at a higher and 
more solid character than either have yet made for themselves. It consists of two 
large and distinct buildings — one termed the "carriage department," devoted to the 
purposes its name indicates; the other, having two paved passages or arcades, with 
shops on either side, stairs leading to show-rooms above, and wine-vaults below, 
while a significant " QCT^ To the Bazar" intimates that lighter and more elegant 
trifles are not forgotten in the attention paid to carriages, furniture, and household 
supplies. 

There are various bazars at the "west end," of which the more remarkable are, 
the one in Soho square, the first sta/ted in London, another in Baker street, Portman 
square, and a third in the building in Oxford street, which occupies the site of what 
was termed the Pantheon. The Pantheon was a handsome building devoted to pur- 
poses of amusement ; it was nearly all burned in 1792; and the present building, 
which retains the portico of the former one, has, after some vicissitudes, been de- 
voted to the purposes of a bazar. The ground-floor is neatly set round with tables, 
after the manner of a " fancy fair ;" a flight of stairs leads to the upper floor, which 
is partly occupied in the same way ; and a number of other rooms are set apart as 
a picture gallery, where pictures are hung up for sale. An open space in the centre 
of the upper floor, which is railed round, permits the light to fall from the roof on 
the lower floor, and hence the visiter can look down on the not uninteresting scene 
below. In the rear of the building is a conservatory, where plants and flowers are 
exhibited for sale, and which contains a mimic fountain and basin with gold and 
silver fish. 

Regent street is divided into two distinct portions or streets. The first street, 
which is the shortest, runs up from Pall Mall to Piccadilly, terminating in an opeu 
circular space, called the Circus. The Haymarket on one side, and St. James street 
at some little distance on the other, run paiallel with this Regent street, all three 
extending from Pall Mall to Piccadilly. The view from the Circus down Regent 
street, which slopes toward St. James's park, is excellent. The street, though 
rather short, is broad and spacious ; the view extends across Pall Mall to the steps 
leading into the park, on the top of which is the pillar erected to the memory of the 
duke of York. From the Circus we turn round, through the colonnaded curve called 
the Quadrant, into the upper portion of Regent street. The Quadrant is certainly 
a singular street. Its form is a curve : colonnades supported on iron pillars run 
along on either side, underneath which the foot-passengers walk, and the shops here 
are of a similar character to the shops of an arcade. In cold, moist, wintry weather, 
these colonnades are dark, heavy-looking, and cheerless, even though they afford a 
shelter from the rain, while the sombre aspect of gas-lit shops in mid-day adds to 
the dreariness. In summer they are pleasant, cool, and shady, but still are lacking 
in that peculiar kind of effect which we associate with a colonnade in sultry weather. 

On emerging from the Quadrant, the upper Regent street is spread before us ; and 
if the period be the busy season," and the time of day from two o'clock till 
four or five, or even six, with a bright summer sun pouring its radiance over spacious 
street and dingy alley, the view is, of its kind, one of the finest in the world. The 
newest fashions are displayed on the street ; rows of carriages are drawn up at the 
edge of each pavement; loungers on foot, or on horseback, or whirling their cab- 



LONDON. 405 

riolets along, pass up and down ; at the doors of many of the shops forms are osten- 
tatiously placed by the considerate shopmen, on which footmen recline, in liveries of 
various hues, awaiting the pleasure of their masters or mistresses within ; shopmen, 
trimly dressed, step out to receive the commands of those who do not choose to alight 
from their carriages, or else to deliver the purchases with a polite and humble atten- 
tion ; and now and then, a hackney-coach, or an omnibus with its dozen passengers 
at sixpence each, or a poor beggar on the pavement, makes his appearance, as if to 
illustrate by the force of contrast all this showy splendor. 

Bond street, divided into Old and New, is a short distance from Regent street, 
running parallel with it from Piccadilly to Oxford street. It is still a much fre- 
quented place, and many of its shops are elegant and grand, "though its old con- 
sequence as a fashionable lounging-street has been somewhat eclipsed by its mag- 
nificent-looking rival. 

The long line of Oxford street is full of many and remarkable contrasts. Shops 
of every character are to be found in it ; the baker and the confectioner, with their 
open windows, and smoking buns, and tarts that the sun has changed in color ; the 
fishmonger drenching his shop with water, to preserve his stock from the effects of 
the heat ; the public-house, at the doors of which stable-boys, footmen, and working- 
men, may be seen entering or emerging; the coffee-shop; the trunk-maker; the 
hosier, in a little shop where there seems hardly room to turn between the shelves 
and the counter; the saloon-like place where the mercer unrolls his silks; the little 
stalls on the edge of the pavement, loaded with cabbage and cauliflowers, green 
peas, and new potatoes. The best part of Oxford street is from a little east of Re- 
gent street, proceeding westward. Being a great thoroughfare, it is perpetually 
thronged ; carriages, stage-coaches, cabriolets, and omnibuses, are ever rolling past — 
for Oxford street is the Cheapside of the " west end." 

We have already alluded to the other streets of the " west end, which are noted 
places — such as Pall Mall and St. James's street. The great thoroughfares, or 
promenades, are Pall Mall, St. James's street, New and Old Bond streets, Albemarle 
street, the two Regent streets, Oxford street, with the arcades and bazars. There 
are many fine shops here and there, some of them in very quiet-looking places, 
scattered among the private houses in the different streets. Charing Cross, the 
"west end" of the Strand, and part of Whitehall street may be added to the re- 
markable or noted streets. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

MARKETS.— SMITHFIELD, BILLINGSGATE, AND COVENT GARDEN. 

There are four chief markets in London, which may be regarded as the fountain- 
heads, or grand reservoirs, whence the dealers of the metropolis, as well as persons 
in the country, draw their supplies : these are, Mark lane for grain, Smithfield for 
live stock, Billingsgate for fish, and Covent Garden for vegetables and fruit. A great 
portion of the other markets are for the sale of meat and vegetables, and may be 
regarded more as family markets (or at least as much so) than as markets for dealers. 
Thus Newgate and Leadenhall markets, the great emporiums of the carcass-butch- 
ers, are markets for the sale of meat and vegetables : the one is within a few minutes' 
walk of Smithfield ; the other is near the East-India house, lying between Leadenhall 
and Fenchurch streets. Newport market, in Newport street, near Leicester square, 
is divided into the wholesale and retail markets : the retail market is merely a kind 
of row, or alley, with butchers' shops on either side. Hungerford market — a hand- 
some place on the banks of the Thames, which is entered from the Strand, near 
Charing Cross — may be regarded as a sort of adjunct or ally of Billingsgate, for such 
it was intended to be ; it is, however, a general market. The row of shops occupied 
by the " Whitechapel butchers" in High street, Aldgate, may be reckoned a meat- 



406 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

market ; and not very far thence is a vegetable-market in Spitalfields. Across the 
water, in South wark, is the well-known " borough market ;" Farringdon market, off 
Farringdon street, is in lieu of the old Fleet market, which was removed ; there is a 
market not far from Finsbury square ; Clare market is in Clare street, near Lincoln's- 
Inn-Fields ; and at the " west end" are Portman and Carnaby markets — the latter a 
small market, as well as Oxford-street market, which, though now decayed, was 
some few years ago in a very flourishing condition. In short, London contains sixteen 
flesh-markets, and twenty-five markets for corn, coal, hay, vegetables, fish, or oilier 
principal articles of consumption. Of the flesh-markets, some are for live animals, 
some for carcasses in bulk, others for the retail of meat, and others for pork, fowls, &c. 

The shops and the hawkers are the conduits and the pipes by which the supplies 
of the markets are distributed over the whole surface of the metropolis. The hawk- 
ers are a numerous and indefatigable generation. Manifold are the voices to be 
heard in every suburban district and retired street proclaiming whatever in its season 
is thought likely to sell. In the morning, mingled with the curious scream of the 
milk woman, mav be heard the long-drawn sound of "water-cresses!" then comes 
round the cats'-meat man, his little cart drawn by one or two dogs, while the house- 
hold cats, as he approaches, recognise his voice, and manifest lively and unequivocal 
symptoms of interest ; and, perhaps, before breakfast is over, a sound that is more a 
yell than a cry, emitted from iron lungs, and seemingly intended to reach the deepest 
recesses of the kitchen, announces that " hearthstone" is at hand. Breakfast is 
scarcely well over when the bakers' and the butchers' men begin their rounds : the 
bakers with baskets or barrows ; the butchers, some on horseback, others with oval- 
shaped wooden trays upon their shoulders. Now come the men with their live soles, 
their eels, or their mackerel; with these are to be seen the venders of the cabbage, 
the cucumber, the onion, the lettuce, the cauliflower, peas, turnips, potatoes, or fruit ; 
and the spaces which are left are filled up by itinerant hawkers of brooms, brushes, 
ornaments, &c, with now and then an Italian boy with his figure-tray, or a strolling 
minstrel with his hand-organ or his guitar. In the afternoon the hawkers go round 
again, for " supper"-time is drawing nigh. Has the stock of vegetables or of fish 
been unsold in the morning ? It will disappear in the evening. Is the season for 
oysters gone ? Then are not lobsters come in ? 

The seasons have their different effects on different markets. Thus the fine sum- 
mer weather, during which Billingsgate is resplendent with fish, and Covent Garden 
blooming with vegetables, fruit, and flowers, causes the butcher to fret, makes hitn 
keep his shop or stall comparatively bare and scanty, while the passer-by is more 
apt to turn away, than to stand still and admire the meat. But let Christmas and a 
nipping frost approach together ; let the season come round when cattle-shows are 
held, and fat oxen are brought up in wagons because they can not well waddle on 
foot to town, and the scene will be changed. It is indeed a rich treat, immediately 
preceding the great anniversary, to see the crowds standing at the butchers' shops, 
and feasting their admiring eyes on the glorious " barons of beef" hung up around. 

Smithfield is a cattle-market on Mondays and Fridays, and a hay and straw mar- 
ket is held in it on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. The great marker-day 
is Monday, or rather Monday morning. The place is a large irregular area, cm 1 ise'd 
by houses. It is so arranged that the cattle arrive in the outskirts of London on 
Sunday, and toward evening they rre driven into the city. There are two gnat 
thoroughfares by which the cattle are brought to London: by the great northern 
road, over Highgate hill, and through Islington ; and by the eastern outlet of the city, 
the Whitechapel road. They continue arriving in Smithfield from about nine 
o'clock on Sunday night till toward morning. During the dark nights of win- 
fer, when the supply of cattle in the market is greatest, and especially about the 
time of what is called the " great market," near the end of the year, the scene in 
Smithfield is terrific. The drovers are furnished with torches, to enable them to 
distinguish the marks on the cattle — to put the sheep in pens — and to form the 
" beasts" into droves ; the latter are all placed with their heads to the centres of the 
droves, which is done for the purpose of enabling the purchasers to examine the 
bodies of the animals more easily. This is not accomplished without very great 
exertion : the different flocks of sheep have to be kept from mixing with each other, 
and the bullocks are severely beaten over the nostrils to compel them to form into 
the drove or circle, and then to stand patiently. The lowing of the " beasts," the trem- 
ulous cries of the sheep, the barking of dogs, the rattling of sticks on the heads and 



LONDON. 



407 




408 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

bodies of the animals, the shouts of the drovers, and the flashing about of torchet. 
present altogether a wild combination. 

As morning breaks, the purchasers arrive, and arduous work it is for both buyer 
and seller. When a bullock has been purchased, it has to be separated from the 
drove ; and the poor animal is not only reluctant to be driven out, but, naturally 
dreading a repetition of former treatment, it thrusts its head into every drove it 
passes, causing a shower of blows to descend on it and every animal it disturbs; then 
a flock of sheep, when let out of a pen, run hither and thither: sometimes, on emer- 
ging from the market, scattered by a wagon or a coach, and sometimes darting with 
rapidity in the direction they are not wanted to go. Wo to the novice who is care- 
ful of his dress, and attempts to pass through Smithfield on a wet, wintry Monday 
morning ! 

The cattle-market held on Fridays inSmithfield is of very minor importance when 
compared with the market on Mondays. But there is a horse-market held on the 
afternoon of the Fridays, which, though far from being a creditable affair, is exceed- 
ingly amusing : the knowing look of the jockeys, who are attempting to display their 
broken-down animals to the best advantage, and the fun and laughter going on at 
one gart of Smithfield where costermongers assemble to buy and sell their asses, are 
not without attraction to those who can relish scenes of low drollery, and coarse and 
boisterous mirth. The character of Smithfield as a /jor.se-market is not very high. 
In 182S, it was stated to be the means of bringing together "all the rogues and 
thieves within ten miles of London," and that it was " the most abominable scene 
that can be imagined." It is not quite so bad now, being under better police regu- 
lations. 

Very little meat is sold by the butchers in London on a Monday, except by those 
who supply exclusively the upper ranks of society. The habits of the working and 
middle classes of the metropolis lead them to cook a large quantity of food on the 
previous day, the remains of which serve them on Monday. For this reason the 
butcbers prefer the market of live stock to be on Monday in preference to any other 
day, as they have then more time to attend to it. Monday also being the great day 
at Mark lane, individuals from the country doing business both in cattle and in grain 
are able to attend Smiihfield in the morning, and Mark lane during the day. Taking 
a period of twelve years, the annual average of "beasts" sold in Smithfield is one 
hundred and forty-seven thousand, five hundred and thirty-six, and of sheep one 
million, two hut\ 'red and twenty thousand, one hundred and fifty. 

The smaller retail butchers do not buy animals in Smithfield, unless it may be now 
and then a few sheep ; they prefer purchasing from the carcass-butchers, who kill 
to a large extent for the supply of the smaller dealers in meat. The carcass-butchers 
have their places in different parts of London, but they are to be found principally 
'in Warwick lane, which runs from Newgate street to Paternoster row, in Newgate 
market close adjoining, in Leadenhall market, in High street, Aldgate (the "White- 
chapel butchers"), &c. Many of these butchers are in both the wholesale and the 
retail trade, and the business which some of them transact is very great. 

A large quantity of what is termed "country-killed meat" is brought to London — 
more in cold weather than in warm. W hat effect will the railroads ultimately have 
on Smithfield market? The carriage of meat in warm weather deteriorates it: but 
if means are afforded of bringing it up with rapidity, and without jolting, there is no 
doubt that the quantity of "country-killed meat" brought to the metropolis will be 
considerably increased. The flesh of an animal killed without undergoing the fa- 
tigue of a long journey, and without being excited, goaded, and driven about in a 
crowded market, must necessarily be sweeter than that of one bought in Smiihfield, 
and killed shortly afterward. It is stated, however — and the statement appears nat- 
ural enough — that the London slaughter-men have a knack and handiness in per- 
forming their work which the country slaughterers can not attain. A few of the 
London butchers have fields, where they feed and rest their purchases before they 
kill them. 

A great quantity of pork is brought from various parts of the country, especially 
from Wiltshire, Berkshire, Essex, &c. The veal which is killed in the country is 
brought up packed, generally in dry straw and cloth. A considerable quantity of 
mutton is also brought up from the country. 

Newgate and Leadenhall markets, being old established seats of business, are 
more famed for the nature of their supplies, than for the extent or beauty of the ac- 



LONDON 



409 




410 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

cominodations of the market-places. The same, indeed, may be said of all the old 
markets of London. It is hard to change old habits. The finest market may be 
erected ; but that of itself is not sufficient to bring the supplies, and, therefore, the 
people. 

Billingsgate lies immediately below London bridge, at the western extremity of 
the customhouse. It was established in 1699, and is held every day, except Sunday, 
when however mackerel is allowed to be sold. The market is so divided that oys- 
ters are sold in one part, and other descriptions of shellfish in another ; red herrings, 
cod, salmon, and eels, are to be found in the respective divisions of the market as- 
signed for their sale. The two latter are the only kinds sold by weight. Between 
the fisherman and the retail fishmonger there is an intermediate class of dealers, 
about thirty in number, termed salesmen, who alone occupy stalls in the market. 
The fishermen consign their cargoes to the salesmen, who are compelled to fix up in 
a conspicuous place a statement of the kind and amount of their stock ; but they are 
not allowed to expose fish for sale before the ringing of the market-bell, at five 
o'clock. 

As might naturally be expected, the country round about London is largely occu- 
pied by the growers of vegetable produce. The Middlesex side of the Thames above 
London contains a considerable proportion of horticulturists; but Middlesex supplies 
but a small portion of the produce sold in Covent-Garden market. The home prod- 
uce there sold comes from several counties — a large proportion from Kent. There 
are, however, no means of ascertaining the amount brought into Covent-Garden 
market. It is only from the casual comers that an account of what they bring is 
taken, in order to settle the amount of toll which they are required to pay. Those 
who occupy shops or stands by the week, or by the year, and who sell by far the 
greater part of the produce brought in, merely pay their rents as they would do in 
occupying a shop anywhere else. Some of those shops or stands, held only from 
week to week, have continued in the same families through two or even three gen- 
erations. 

Covent Garden belonged to the abbots of Westminster, and was termed the Con- 
vent Garden. On the dissolution of the monasteries, it was given to the duke of Som- 
erset ; and after his fall, it was granted, in 1552, to the earl of Bedford. For a long 
period it was only used as a pasture-ground, and was afterward let on a building- 
lease. At this time the square was planned out ; and Inigo Jones was employed in 
designing it — the piazza or portico which runs round a portion of the square being 
his work. The origin of the market was casual — people coming and standing in the 
centre of the square with produce for sale gradually leading to the establishment of 
a regular market. Though the market became the best in London for vegetable 
productions, its appearance, like that of old Fleet market, which has been removed, 
was very unsightly, being an irregular combination of sheds and standings. But 
about six years ago, in consequence of the passing of an act of parliament for the 
purpose, the present convenient, though somewhat singular series of market build- 
ings were built at the expense of the duke of Bedford, who receives a revenue from 
the rents and tolls. The markets may be termed a combination of the arcade and 
the colonnade, having covered passages with shops, and colonnades where dealers 
pitch their stands or baskets. One side of the market is reserved for coarser produce, 
potatoes, &c. ; vegetables and fruit are tolerably well separated from each other, and 
flowers and plants are also assigned a distinct quarter. 

Covent-Garden market is a daily market, and is at all times more or less worth a 
visit ; but to those who do not object to rise early, and vvhp do not care much about 
the jostling of a crowd, it is particularly worth a visit in summer, on one of the mar- 
ket mornings, which occur three times a week. From about half past three till about 
half-past four there is no crowd in the market, though business is transacting with 
considerable rapidity. Industrious men and women are here, who are up betimes; 
and here also are the " higglers," who act on the old and veritable country maxim, 
that "the early bird catches the worm." These interpose themselves between the 
grower and the small dealer, buying an entire stock from the former at a venture, 
and endeavoring to sell to the latter at an enhanced price. From about five o'clock 
down till seven or eight the crowd is great. The greengrocers come jogging in their 
taxed carts ; porters push through the narrow spaces with a load of baskets on their 
heads ; and a kind of subdued, clamoring sound echoes along the colonnades and the 
piazza, broken in upon now and then by some sharp, vociferous dispute between a 



LONDON 




412 # DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

couple of hasket-women. Here, against the pillars of the piazza, are little tables, 
with tea and bread and butter for sale ; and hawkers thread their way through the 
lane of human beings, or occupy a position at a corner, proffering cakes and buns, 
combs, knives, and pocketbooks. And, though it is pleasant to see the tea-tables 
meeting with ready custom, still the public houses are not without their share of 
customers. One can almost tolerate the public houses in Smithfield, open all Sun- 
day night and Monday morning, for arduous is the drover's work ; but tea and 
coffee would seem a more fitting refreshment in Coven t-Garden market than gin or 
"purl." 

Though Covent Garden is the chief market in London for fruit and vegetables, a 
very considerable amount is brought to other places. The Borough market and 
Spitalfields market, in particular, are very well supplied, especially in coarser vege- 
table produce ; they are a sort of headquarters for the sale of potatoes. In the neigh- 
borhood of the Borough maiket, also, chiefly in the main street of South wark, lead- 
ing from London bridge, and in adjoining streets, the "Hop Dealers" congregate. 

The Corn exchange, in Mark lane, is more a national than a metropolitan market. 
The building is large and commodious. In the interior, which is a quadrangular 
paved court, surrounded by a colonnade, the corn-factors have binns or desks^ for the 
purpose of containing samples of their grain. Purchasers take out a handful, testing 
the grain by the usual processes of tasting, feeling, smelling, and weighing; and, 
when a bargain is concluded, the quantity purchased is disposed of according to in- 
structions. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

MANUFACTURES.— SPITALFIELDS.— THE BOROUGH.— BERMONDSEY 
AND TOOLEY STREET. 

There are no manufactures (using the word in its more confined and modem ac- 
ceptation) carried on in London, with the exception of that of silk ; which at one 
time might have been considered as almost peculiar to the metropolis. But, as might 
be naturally expected, from the combination of capital and labor, there are several 
manufacturing processes conducted on a larger scale than anywhere else in the Uni- 
ted Kingdom, or even in the world. Some of these are located in particular quarters 
of London. Thus, while the manufacture of silk is confined almost exclusively to 
Spitalfields, nearly all the sugar-refiners have their establishments in Whitechapel ; 
and the borough of Southwark is noted for dealers in hops, manufacturers of hats, 
hide and leather merchants, wool-staplers, fellmongers, tanners, dyers, and rope- 
makers. The manufacture of earthernware is also carried on to some extent in 
Lambeth. 

Spitalfields is a large and now decayed and squalid portion of London, lying on 
the northeast side of the "city." This, and Bethnal Green, and a small portion of 
Whitechapel, may be considered as one district ; bounded on the west by Bishopgate 
street and Shoreditch ; on the north by the Hackney road ; and on the south bv the 
great eastern outlet of the city, the Whitechapel road, which separates it from the 
main portion of Whitechapel — a district, in many parts, equally squalid with Spital- 
fields, but which (from containing many public works, the docks, &c.) does not ex- 
hibit such an impoverished and dejected aspect. The Spital fields were begun to be 
built on during the seventeenth century; and the houses being suburban, w.ere occu- 
pied by the silkworkers, being in the vicinity of the city, and yet affording air and 
light. Toward the close of the seventeenth, and beginning of the eighteenth centu- 
ry, the buildings rapidly increased, until Spitalfields became what it now is, a mass 
of narrow, inconvenient, and badly-ventilated streets, lanes, courts, and alleys. 

The greater part of Spitalfields is a dreary and dismal place ; it pains one's heart 
to walk through it. Dirty and narrow streets; many old tumble-down houses; win- 
dows patched with paper, pasteboard, or perhaps the broken pane stuffed out with 



LONDON. 



413 




414 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



an old hat ; here and there a green-grocer's or cheesemonger's shop, a potato or coal* 
shed, or a ginshop, whose occupants seem to thrive in the midst of poverty — these 
are the characteristics of this region. But the squalidness of Spitalfields does not 
arise from the poverty of the weavers alone. Dr. Kay, an assistant poor-law com- 
missioner, who inspected the district in the month of April, 1837, for the purpose of 
reporting on the distress then prevailing, says: "The district called Spitalfields con- 
tains a large population not concerned with the silk trade. A portion of the casual 
population of London frequents either the lodging-houses, or the rooms which com- 
monly contain a household, and the rent of which is collected from week to week. 
The Irish who are employed at the docks, or as bricklayers' laborers and porters 
throughout the city and town, together with a considerable number of Irish silk- 
weavers, form another element of the population ; and English, also employed as por- 
ters and laborers, together with shoemakers, carpenters, cabinet-makers, clockma- 
kers, hawkers, and other similar trades, are mixed with the mass of the weavers. 
The parishes in which the weaving population is chiefly found are Christchurch, 
Spitalfields; St. Matthew, Bethnal Green; Mile-End, New Town; St. Leonard, 
Shoreditch ; and St. Mary, Whilechapel." 

Leaving Spitalfields, and passing Whitechapel (a visit to Rosemary lane, alias 
Rag Fair, will bring us back to it), let us cross London bridge, and enter Southwark. 
High street, the main street of the borough, is on a line with the bridge. Welling- 







London Bridge. 



LONDON. 415 

ton street, the new approach to the bridge on the Southwark side, is, like King Wil- 
liam street on the opposite or city side, quile new and spacious ; and at first a visiter 
would not think he had entered the ancient borough of Southwark. But a little 
higher up, we are in the High street, with its town-hall, and church, and shop-like 
postofrlce ; and here we might imagine we were in the main street of a bustling 
country town. Upward of one half of the hop-dealers of the metropolis have their 
shops or establishments in the High street ; and of the remainder, the greater portion 
are in the immediate neighborhood. The other occupants of the High street are 
dealers of every description — woollen and linen drapers, butchers, cheesemongers, 
hardware merchants, surgeons, chymists, tobacconists, tea-dealers, &c, with sundry 
wagon-inns, and public houses. 

Bermondsey is the name of a parish now included in the parliamentary borough 
of Southwark, and which lies eastward of the Borough High street and London 
bridge: the Greenwich railroad passes through it. A great portion of the coarser 
manufacturing processes of the metropolis are carried on in it, and in its adjoining 
neighbor, Rotherhithe. They abound with tanneries, tenter grounds, glue and soap 
manufactories, rope- walks, brimstone and saltpetre works, &c. Bermondsey is not 
closely built upon, for the manufactures carried on within it require considerable 
space, and the pungent odors they diffuse invite nobody to reside in the district but 
those who have an interest in so doing. Yet Bermondsey is a far pleasanter place 
to walk in than Spitalfields. Industry within it has a rough and even repulsive 
aspect, but heart-withering poverty has not shed a blight over the whole place. 
Some of the streets and lanes, especially toward the water-side, are dirty-looking 
enough : but there are many open spaces, with rows of neat cottages, inhabited by 
the workmen connected with the establishments in the neighborhood. 

Bermondsey street, the main street of the parish, runs up southward from about 
the centre of Tooley street, at some little distance from, but not quite parallel to, 
the Borough High street. Besides the usual class of tradesmen, cheesemongers, 
bakers, butchers, publicans, &c, it is inhabited by wool-staplers, hair-merchants, 
leather-manufacturers, curriers, vinegar-manufacturers, drysalters, &c. Nearly all 
the wool-staplers, fell-mongers, and tanners of London are to be found in Bermond- 
sey. Off Bermondsey street there is a large new skin or leather-market, tenanted 
by lea.iher-factors, skin-merchants, and tanners; and in its immediate vicinity arc 
tan-yards. The reason why the tanneries of Bermondsey are the largest in the 
empire, may be found in the circumstances of the large capital required, and the 
ready market and great demand afforded by the extensive operations of London — 
coach-making and book-binding. The manufacture of morocco leather is almost 
exclusively confined to the tanneries of Bermondsey. Formerly, the hides to be 
tanned were kept in the pits six, twelve, or eighteen months, and in some instances 
two years, or even more. But now science has been called in to shorten the time 
occupied in the process. " The improved process," says Mr. Babbage, " consists in 
placing the hides with the solution of tan in close vessels, and then exhausting the 
air. The effect is to withdraw any air which may be contained in the pores of the 
hides, and to aid capillary attraction by the pressure of the atmosphere in forcing 
the tan into the interior of the skins. The effect of the additional force thus brought, 
into action can be equal only to one atmosphere; but a further improvement has 
been made: the vessel containing the hides is, after exhaustion, filled up with a 
soluion of tan ; a small additional quantity is then injected with a forcing-pump. 
By these means any degree of pressure may be given which the containing-vessel is 
capable of supporting; and it has been found that, by employing such a method, 
the thickest hides can be tanned in six weeks or two months." 

Tooley street has a different aspect now from what it had when it was immor- 
talized by Mr. Canning's clever, though somewhat flippant joke, about three tailors 
in it assembled to draw up a petition to the house of commons, and commencing it 
with " We, the people of England." There are a few tailors in Tooley street, but 
they inhabit the lower portion of it, along with the slop-sellers, chandlers, brokers. 
and other tradesmen. The street runs from London bridge eastward, passing the 
foot of Bermondsey street ; the upper portion of it, adjoining the bridge, has under- 
gone a thorough reconstruction, and is occupied by wharfingers, hop and cider- 
merchants, wholesale potato-merchants, and other dealers in what may be termed 
bulky goods. Here the crane and pulley seem never to be idle during the entire day. 
Drays and carts are continually loading and unloading ; sacks, bags, boxes, and bar 



416 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



"ll 




^imrm 



LONDON. 417 

rels are swinging up and down ; hops are storing in warehouses, or carting to the 
brewers ; beer and cider are transferring either to or from the vessels at the wharfs; 
and goods of various kinds are carrying out and in from the wharves. 

The manufacture of hats is carried on to a large extent in Southwark ; and in 
Lambeth, which has increased very largely within the last fifteen or twenty years, 
there are a considerable number of establishments, in which the manufactures of 
machinery, earthenware, &c, are carried on. The large printing establishment of 
the Messrs. Clowes is in Lambeth. We might appear to degrade the production of 
books if we call it a manufacture ; but it is really so, in all the divisions of labor 
and mechanical inventions which constitute a factory upon a large scale 



CHAPTER XXXV. 
BRIDGES. 

Old London bridge was for six centuries the only bridge across the Thames a» 
London. It was begun, according to Stowe, in 1176 ; and Westminster bridge, the 
next that was built, was not opened till 1748. London bridge was built of stone 
but it was covered with houses, most of them of wood, which were frequently de- 
stroyed by fire. After Westminster bridge was opened, the houses of London bridge 
were removed, under authority of acts of parliament ; and the bridge itself was great- 
ly widened and improved. It continued a kind of convenient nuisance, perpetually 
requiring to be propped up and repaired, but strong in the attachment and antiqua- 
rian veneration which its old eventful associations created, till 1831 ; and now, unless 
we except the monument, there is scarcely a landmark left by which to indicate 
where it once stood. 

We now count six bridges across the Thames at London — eight, if we go above 
Vauxhall, and include the suburban bridges of Battersea and Putney. Putney bridge, 
a clumsy wooden structure, was built between 1726 and 1729 ; its arches are the 
Scylla and Charybdis of amateur boatmen on the Thames, and, like the arches of 
Old London bridge, are not unfrequently the cause of loss of life to the careless or 
inexperienced. 

Westminster bridge was the first bridge erected after London bridge. It is 
adjacent to the houses of parliament, and is also in the vicinity of Westminster hall. 
On the 13th of September, 1738, the preparations for the building of Westminster 
bridge were begun, by the driving of the first pile for its foundation, in the presence 
of a vas: multitude of spectators: the piers were built in coffe*r-dams. On the 29th 
of January following, the first stone of one of the two central piers (that next the 
west side) was laid by the earl of Pembroke. The whole structure is built of stone, 
and principally of Portland block stones, of which few are less than a ton in weight, 
while many are two or three, and some even four or five tons. There are fourteen 
piers in all, besides the two abutments, and consequently fifteen arches ; they are semi- 
circular in form, and the span of that in the middle is seventy-six feet: the others grad- 
ually decrease in width : the sixth from the centre on each side being only fifty-two 
feet, and the two next the abutments only twenty-five each. The whole length of 
the bridge is twelve hundred and twenty-three feet ; and the clear water-way under 
the arches is eight hundred and seventy feet. The road over it is forty-four feet in 
breadth, the footpaths on each side included. In the beginning of 1747, when it 
was nearly completed, one of the piers sunk so much as to determine the commis- 
sioners to have it pulled down and rebuilt ; and this was the only circumstance by 
which the work was materially retarded. It was at last brought to a conclusion on 
the 10th of November that year — when the new bridge was formally opened by a 
procession passing over it. The work cost in all three hundred and eighty-nine thou- 
sand, and five hundred pounds sterling, which was granted for the purpose in suc- 
cessive years by parliament. Maitland states that the value of forty thousand pounds 
is computed to be always under water in stone and other materials ; and, according 

27 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES 







LONDON, 



419 




420 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

other authorities, the whole ^ *,*&££&"+ " "^ " 
ft ave been nearly double that employed nS t«J l«^ he ni of Westminster 

Blackfriars bridge was begun in abou ten ye ar s a P ^ rf d 

jridge. Atlheumeitwasbu^ and Bennie carried 

sua si& s:£ssfo&fcs». u* — » «* - 

tensive alterations and repairs. structure of cast-iron, the second 

Southwark and Waterloo brid ge *^*«™ J^™ J r i d _ wer e nearly contemporane- 
of granite, and one of the noblest .bridges in Jewo completed in 1817 j 

ous'n their erection. Waterloo , b " d / e an 7 op enedln 1819. Vauxhall bridge, which 
Southwark bridge was begun in 1814 an ^ P e X br dges, was also built about the 
i B the farthest up the river of the strict lyLoi don br m , fa ^ ^ 

same time as the Southwark and Waterloo bnd e » of cast _ iron> resting 

ished in 1816. It consists of nine arches oi equal span, i 

on piers of rusticated stone. opened in 1831. Both it and Water- 

New London bridge was begun m 1824, and openea g on ^ 

loo bridge were opened with great ceremony! jd J^mP ^ ^ 

any other stone arch of this form ever erected ^ twent nine f eet six inches ; 
fifty-two feet span, with a rise above ^g^ter mark ot twe j ^ abmment8 

the" two arches next the centre are one hundred and tort ^ J feet w y 

are each one hundred and thirty feet in span I he roa y £ the road ^ 

between the parapets, the ^.^J^ThlleZhouZ bridge, from the extremi- 

sfi^^iss^ s^ftxh* and tweaty thou " 

sandtns^The'new bridge is, ^^S^S^^ tolls ™ ^ ^ 
Of the six bridges, three ^e.^f^^^tdy. The three open bridges are 
it so happens that one of^ch kind occurs alternaely. ^ 

London, Blackfriars, and Westminster ; and at au P e » ou * . d J on horse back. 

seen thronged by a multitude of P a * s <^^^^ 

At each of the other bridges there "^^^i ^n the toll-house, by which the 
each. Connected with each ™^e » M_i«tai^ ained during each day. The 
number of foot-passengers can be d 13 ! 1 ^ 1 ^ - a ^Xse bridges, though far from 
number of passengers on foot and horseback ^ ^ d th 4? t e h D the olh ' er bridges. . 
being inconsiderable, is yet very small when compared wi ^ ^ fa ^ 

Waterloo bridge affords the fines '^^^"JM on. either side of it, at 
the immediate neighborhood fj^J^'^^ bridges may be seen covered with 
some little distance, Wes ^msler andBlack ina ran & ^ ^ foo nger) 

an apparently never-ending crowd E u ■ ^^J™^ a thronged thoroughfare ; and 
keeps Waterloo bridge free from the ^^^^e^ent, and enjov the fine per- 
one can walk with ease and comfort along its level ex e ^ ht ^ 

spective view of London which, by the sharp turn oMM , ^ . 

fore the eye. The noble river front of Somerset nouse j 
the dome of St. Paul's does not appear sc , vast a on f ^XJchmitment to the 
tance, which somewhat diminishes the »^ a °f the s« e surrounding 

view," and the towers of Westminster abbe a re seen „sin tQ Waterloo brid ge 

objects. It is pleasant, on the close of a suit ry ^J' ° £, he Strand .. and on 
from the heated pavement and brick walls of Flee t street a ^ and who 

such an evening the "ervous or impatient man pam m gio f We sensations , 



LONDON. 



421 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 
AMUSEMENTS.— THE THEATRES AND EXHIBITIONS. 

In a map prefixed to Maitland's London, representing the metropolis as it appeared 
'about the year 1560," there is no trace of a theatre, though we know that about 
twenty years afterward there were three or four. But if there be no theatre, the map 
is not without evidence of what were public amusements. In those days, when 
strolling players were content to perform in the courtyard of an inn, their spectators 
looking down upon them from the old wooden balconies, rougher amusements had 
secured for themselves permanent habitations. Among the references in the map is 
one to the cockpit, and conspicuous on the Surrey side of the Thames, behind the 
strip of houses known then as the notorious Bankside, are two round buildings, open 
at the top, and adorned with flags, under which are written " bull-baiting and bear- 
baiting." 

There appears to have been a theatre in London in the year 1576 : it was proba- 
bly the first regular theatre of the metropolis. In that year also was the Blackfriars 
built, so famous for Shakspere's connexion with it ; and in tfte year following the 
Curiain, in Shoreditch, in which Ben Jonson performed. These were speedily fol- 
lowed by others, which, as they were mostly small wooden structures, were easily 
thrown up, and as easily consumed by the slightest touch of fire. A view of the 
Globe theatre, at Bankside, is given here. 




Globe Theatre, Bankside. 

While the theatre was undergoing various mutations — now seemingly established 
by Shakspere and his colleagues, then driven into obscurity by the stern spirit of re- 
ligious zeal ; again patronised, and made a nest of profligacy, and from that time 
gradually but slowly elevated — the great bulk of the people remained attached to 
their rough and out-of-door amusements. During the last century, bear-baiting and 
bull-baiting continued to attract crowded audiences, and boasted of the patronage of 
"persons of quality;" the self-styled "noble art of self-defence," not with fists mere- 
ly, but with sharp slashing swords, drew females to witness its brutal exhibitions ; 
and even females publicly advertised boxing matches, with all the swagger of bul- 
lies. The people did go to the theatre; they filled the galleries, disturbed the per- 
formances, and dictated to the actors. If they chose to indulge in the horse-play of 



A22 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

stopping the coaches and sedans conveying masqueraders to their amusements, and 
ordering them to let down their masks, that they might see who they were, nobody 
thought of resisting the joke — even rough-spun Johnson was glad to escape into an- 
tithesis, and to exclaim, that " their insolence in peace was their bravery in war." 

The bear-gardens and cockpits have disappeared, and in their stead are zoological 
gardens ; the fairs of London have been blotted out, one by one, except Bartholomew 
Fair, which still annually, with its booths, puppets, crowds, and gilt gingerbread, 
keeps Smithfield cattle-market in countenance ; but old age and decay are stamped 
on it. Crowds do not rush now, as they did a few years ago, to the " Fives Court," or 
to some field adjoining London, to see men shake hands, and then fall to pounding 
each other. Were Shakspere now to walk into one of our gas-lighted theatres, he 
might fancy that machinist, property-man, and painter, were really inspired by " a 
muse of fire ;" and if they had not risen, were at least rising " into the highest heaven 
of invention." 

Malcolm, at the commencement of the present century, complained that " the 
amusements of the present day are very confined." There were then but five or six 
theatres — there are eighteen at present; and this number, taking into account, also, 
the' numerous new sources of instructive entertainment that have sprung up — institu- 
tions, lectures, and libraries — shows that there is no decline of attachment on the 
part of the people of London to theatrical amusements. 

The Italian opera was established in London about the commencement of last 
century. It had for a considerable time but a struggling kind of existence, but from 
the period of Handel's management became a permanent portion of London amuse- 
ments. When the original house was erected by Sir John Vanbrugh, it stood almost 
in the fields. That house was destroyed by fire in 1789, and the present building 
was soon after erected : but the exterior colonnade, &c, was not added till 1818-20. 
The opera-house, occupying the corner of the Haymarket and Pall Mall, was the 
most westerly theatre of London until the erection, about twelve years ago, of Mr. 
Braham's handsome theatre in King street, between St. James's square and St. 
James's street. Almost every reader is aware that the Italian opera-house is the 
chief resort of the fashionable world of London ; the admission to the gallery is five 
shillings, and half-a-guinea to the pit. 

On the opposite side of the Haymarket from the opera-house is the Haymarket 
theatre. The present building is the third that has been built on the same site. 
The Haymarket theatre has been long a favorite ; and as the greater number of the 
London theatres have each a distinctive character as to the kind and quality of the 
performances, so the Haymarket is particularly noted for its comedies. 

Passing along the Strand, we have the Adelphi on the north side and the Strand 
theatre on the south. The Adelphi is a small and not a very convenient theatre ; 
bur when open during the winter is crowded every night. Its characteristics are 
spectacles, the, story and dialogue of which are never over-charged with meaning, 
but combined with really exquisite pictorial scenery, and burleltas and farces whose 
broad and sometimes coarse humor throws the audience into fits of laughter. 

Turning up the new street which leads from the Strand, opposite Wellington 
street and Waterloo bridge, we pass the new building of the English opera-house. 
The original house called the Lyceum met with the fate of most theatres, in being 
destroyed by fire, in 1829. Not very far from it are the two patent theatres, Drury 
lane and Covent garden ; and in Wych street, which continues Drury lane to the 
Strand, is the Olympic, which, for several years, was managed by Madame 
Vestris. Thus within a space which might be walked over in twenty minutes or 
half an hour, are nine of the eighteen London theatres, all of them the largest or 
the most fashionably attended of any in the metropolis. In the early part of the 
year, when they are nearly all open at the same time, the crowd and bustle, the 
blaze of light from open shops, the rattling of carriages and cabriolets, make twelve 
o'clock at night in this quarter of London appear as animated as twelve or three 
o'clock in the "city" during the day. 

Formerly, when the number of theatres in London was more limited than at 
present, there were many of those suburban places of amusement, of which Vaux- 
hall gardens and White Conduit house are the most conspicuous remaining. The 
virtues of mineral wells, or spas, as they were termed, were in high repute during 
the last century ; and when one was discovered in the neighborhood of London, it 
was sure to be enclosed, and the public were tempted to visit the place by the attrac- 



LONDON. 



423 




424 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

(ions of music, amusements, and company. Dr. Johnson was a visiter of Ranelagh 
gardens, onee a very fashionable place of resort. Islington spa, or New Tun- 
bridge wells, was formerly visited by crowds, not for the water but the dancing — the 
well still exists, little known even to the residents in its neighborhood. The pro- 
prietor of Lambeth wells, anxious to attract popular favor, advertised., at one time, 
a " grinning match ;" the successful competitor in the art of making hideous faces 
was rewarded with a gold-laced hat. Mary-le-bone gardens, which were situated 
about the north end of Harley street, drew crowds to its burlettas, illuminations, 
burning mountains, and representations of the boulevards of Paris. At one time the 
proprietors announced a splendid fete champetre, and not having adorned the place 
to the satisfaction of the audience, the latter determined to have their money's worth 
of amusement, and set to work to demolish stage, bowers, lamps, ornaments, and 
all. At the first opening of Vauxhall gardens in 1732, there were a hundred armed 
soldiers to preserve the peace. 

The taste for this kind of amusement is greatly on the decline. Vauxhall gar- 
dens are still very well frequented — but the illuminated walks are no longer thronged 
by the noble and fashionable. The repeated ascents of the " monster" balloon have 
been a new source of attraction, but even that has been losing its novelty, for latterly 
the gardens were but indifferently attended on the days when the balloon was an- 
nounced to ascend. White Conduit house was never, like Vauxhall, a " fashionable'' 
resort; but from a comparatively early period was a favorite with the middle and 
working classes. It is both a summer and winter house : in summer the gardens are 
laid out and attended, much in the same way as those of Vauxhall, but not so bril- 
liantly. The walks are lighted with colored lamps ; stages are erected on which 
pantomimes and concerts are performed ; and the evening's amusements usually con- 
clude with the ascent of a person on a tight-rope, amid a shower of fireworks. 
Here, also, as at Vauxhall, there are complaints of a great falling off in the numbers 
that used to attend. In winter the gardens are closed ; but the house, which is large 
and spacious, is open for concert performances, and is not unfrequently used for pub- 
lic dinners and meetings. 

There are a considerable number of taverns in London which have music-rooms 
connected with them, where concerts are performed. The chief attraction in these 
concerts are the comic songs, as they are called ; and here we may remark that there 
is yet room for considerable improvement iu the taste of a large portion of the work- 
ing people of London. He must be a miserable cynic who begrudges them some 
amusement after their day's toil ; but many of those comic songs, the singing of 
which sometimes convulses an audience with laughter, are the most contemptibly- 
ridiculous compositions that can well be imagined. There is neither humor nor 
meaning in them, their chief point usually lying in a monstrous absurdity destitute 
of fancy, or a coarse allusion as destitute of wit. 

Within these twenty years past, changes, as pleasant to contemplate as. they are 
extraordinary, have taken place in the nature of some of the amusements provided 
for the people of London. Twenty years ago there stood in the Strand a clumsy, 
awkward building — Exeter 'change — the lower part of which was a kind of bazar, 
the upper a menagerie. This menagerie, and the one in the Tower — both of them 
very unsuitable repositories — were all of which the citizens of London could boast 
as living studies of natural history, at a time when the Jardin des Plantes of Paris, 
under the superintendence of Cuvier's master-mind, constituted at once an amusement 
and a fund of instruction to a vast population. The English are fast wiping away 
the reproach. On the north and south of London are two zoological gardens. 

The zoological gardens in the Regent's park, for picturesque beauty, far surpass 
the Jardin des Plantes of Paris. They lie on the northwest extremity of London, 
and in its finest suburban quarter. The gardens are extensive, and their own attrac- 
tions are heightened by the neighboring amphitheatre of the Highgate and Hamp- 
stead hills. " As we walk along the terrace," says an article in the " Quarterly Re- 
view," " commanding one of the finest suburban views to be anywhere seen, let us 
pause for a moment while ' the sweet south' is wafted over the flowery bank musical 
with bees, whose hum is mingled with the distant roar of the great city. Look at 
the richness and beauty of the scene ! We do not set ourselves up as apologists of 
Nash, who had his faults ; but let his enemies — ay, and his friends too, for there are 
many that worshipped him when living, who do not spare his memory now that he 
is laid in the narrow house — say what they will, if Nash had never done anything 



LONDON 




426 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

beyond laying out St. James's park and the picturesque ground before us, he would, 
in our opinion, have atoned for a multitude of sins." 

The engraving of Regent's park, accompanying this article, will give the reader 
who has not seen the gardens an idea of the manner in which a small portion is 
laid out. The hut was formerly called the Llama hut, but is now appropriated to 
the camels ; the cages, behind which the bear is seen on the pole, are devoted to 
carnivora. A part of the gardens is separated from the main portion by the road 
which runs round the Regent's park : the communication is maintained by a tunnel, 
which is itself an ornamental object. 

The Surrey zoological gardens, as the name indicates, lie on the south side of the 
river Thames, about a mile and a half from Blackfriars bridge. The proprietor of 
Exeter 'change collection removed his menagerie to these gardens in 1831, having 
for a short time occupied the King's Mews at Charing Cross, the site of which is 
now covered by the National Gallery. The Surrey gardens cover a space of about 
fifteen acres, and are laid out in a manner which reflects great credit on the proprie- 
tor. The principal building is a glazed circular erection, three hundred feet in 
diameter, devoted to beasts, birds, and plants. The carnivora thrive better in the 
Surrey gardens than in those of the Regent's park ; the " Quarterly Review" hints 
that the " London clay" is probably the cause — the Regent's-park gardens, though 
verdant and blooming in spring *and summer, being damp in winter. But this very 
building of which we are speaking, in the Surrey gardens, is as likely as any tiling 
to be a prime cause of the animals being kept in better health ; and it has also the 
advantage of enabling visiters to survey the animals with comfort at any period of 
the year. It seems that the terms on which the ground of the Regent's-park gar- 
dens are held of the crown forbid the erection of such buildings as that in the Surrey 
gardens. 

Besides the attraction of the menagerie, the Surrey gardens have frequent floral 
exhibitions, balloon-ascents, imitations of an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, &c, to 
draw visiters in the summer months. Speaking generally — for numbers of all classes 
visit both sets of gardens — the Regent's-park gardens are more frequented by what 
are called fashionable people than those of the Surrey. 

The National Gallery is an establishment of very recent origin, having been opened 
for public inspection in May, 1824. It then consisted of only about forty pictures, 
which were purchased, by order of his majesty, for forty thousand pounds of the ex- 
ecutors of the late Mr. Angerstein ; but it has since been greatly increased by the 
liberality of Sir G. Beaumont, who has presented his splendid collection to the na- 
tion. The British Institution and several private gentlemen have also contributed 
pictures, and others have been purchased by parliament. Among the paintings 
which compose this gallery are the following beautiful specimens : — 

Christ Raising Lazarus, by Sebastian del Piombo ; Village Festival and Blind Fid- 
dler, by Wilkie ; Christ Healing the Sick in the Temple, by West; Vision of St. 
Jerome, by Parmegiano ; Communion of St. Nicholas, by Paul Veronese ; Marriage 
a la Mode, and Portrait of Himself, by Hogarth ; Watering-Place, by Gainsborough ; 
Virgin and Child, by Correggio ; Bacchus and Ariadne, by Titian ; Rape of the Sa- 
bines, and a grand Landscape, by Rubens ; Julius TL, by Raphael ; Gevartius, by Van- 
dyke ; Woman taken in Adultery, and Portrait, by Rembrandt. 

There are also pictures by Cuyp, A. Carracci, Claude, G. Poussin, N. Poussin, 
Domenichino, Sir J. Reynolds, Canaletti, Murillo, Velasquez, &c, &c. 

The Tower of London is situated on the north bank of the Thames, at the extrem- 
ity of the city. The antiquity of the building has been a subject of much inquiry and 
discussion ; but the present fortress is generally believed to have been built by Wil- 
liam I., at the commencement of his reign, and strongly garrisoned with Normans, 
to secure the allegiance of his new subjects ; although it appears, from an ingot and 
three golden coins (one of the Emperor Honorius and the others of Arcadius), found 
here in 1777, that the Romans had a fort on this spot. 

The Tower is governed by the constable of the Tower, who at coronations and 
other state ceremonies has the custody of the regalia. 

The principal entrance is on the west, and is wide enough to admit a carriage. It 
consists of two gates on the outside of the ditch, a stone bridge built over it, and a 
gate within it. The gates are opened and shut with great ceremony : a yeoman por- 
ter, sergeant, and six men, being employed to fetch the keys, which are kept during 
the day at the warder's hall, but deposited every night at the governor's house. 



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428 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

The Tower is separated from the Thames by a platform, and by part of the ditch. 
At each extremity of the platform are passages to Tower-Hill, and near that to the 
east a place for proving muskets. The ditch, of very considerable width and depth, 
proceeds northward on each side of the fortress, nearly in a parallel line, and meets 
in a semicircle ; the slope is faced with brick, and the great, wall of the Tower has 
been repaired with that material so frequently, that it might be disputed whether any 
part of it but the turrets had ever been stone. Cannon are planted at intervals round 
the line, and command every avenue leading to Tower-Hill. The ditch is very much 
neglected, and contains but little water. The interior of the wall is lined with 
houses, to the evident injury of the place as a fortress. If heavy cannon were brought 
against the Tower, the lines would not be tenable one quarter of an hour. 

The space enclosed by the walls measures twelve acres five roods, and the circum- 
ference on the outside of the ditch is three thousand one hundred and fifty-six feet. 
On the south side of the Tower is an arch, called the " Traitor's Gate," through 
which state prisoners were formerly brought from the river. Over this is the infir- 
mary, and the works by which the place is supplied with water. Near the Traitor's 
Gate is the " Bloody Tower," in which it is supposed the two young princes, Edward 
V. and his brother, were smothered by order of Richard III. In the southeast angle 
of the enclosure were the royal apartments, for the Tower was a palace for nearly 
five hundred years, and only ceased to be so on the accession of Queen Elizabeth. 

The principal buildings within the walls are the Church, the White Tower, the 
Old Mint, the Record Office, the Jewel Office, the Horse Armory, the Grand Store- 
house (in which is the Small Armory), the Lion's Tower, containing the menagerie, 
and the Beauchamp Tower. 

The Church, called St. Peter in Vincula, is only remarkable as the depository of 
the headless bodies of numerous illustrious personages who suffered either in the 
Tower or on the adjacent hill. Among these may be mentioned Fisher, bishop of 
Rochester, executed 1535; Bullen, Lord Rochford, 1536; Anna Boleyn, or Bullen, 
1536; Thomas Cromwell, the favorite of Henry VIII., 1540; Catherine Howard, 
1541 ; Seymour, duke of Somerset, 1552 ; Dudley, duke of Northumberland, 1553 ; 
and Scott, duke of Monmouth, 1685. • 

The White Tower is a large, square, irregular building, erected in 1070, by Gan- 
dulph, bishop of Rochester. The walls, which are eleven feet thick, have a wind- 
ing staircase continued along two of the sides, like that in Dover castle. The build- 
ing consists of three lofty stories, under which are commodious vaults, and the top is 
covered with flat leads, whence there is an extensive prospect. On the first story are 
two fine rooms, one of which contains the Sea Armory, consisting of muskets for the 
sea service, and other warlike implements of every description. Here, likewise, is 
the Volunteer Armory, for thirty thousand men. At the top of the building is a 
reservoir, for supplying the garrison with water in case of necessity. Within the 
White Tower is the ancient chapel of St. John, originally used by the English mon- 
archs. The architecture is Saxon, and it is considered a perfect building of its kind. 
It is of an oblong form, rounded at the eastern end ; on each side are five short round 
pillars, with large squared capitals, curiously sculptured, and having a cross on each. 
This chapel now forms a part of the Record Office, and is filled with parchments. 

South of the White Tower is the Modelling Room, in which are curious models 
of Gibraltar and other places; but no strangers are permitted to see them. The Pa- 
rade, near the White Tower, is much frequented as a promenade on Sundays, when 
the Tower is open to the public. 

The office of the keeper of the records is adorned with a finely-carved stone door- 
case. All the rolls, from the time of King John to the beginning of the reign of 
Richard III., are deposited in fifty-six presses at this office. Those since that period 
are kept at the Rolls-Chapel, Chancery lane. The price of a search is ten shillings 
and six pence sterling, for which you may pursue one subject a year. In the Wake- 
field Tower, which forms part of the Record Office, is a fine octagonal room, where 
tradition asserts Henry VI. was murdered. This tower derived its name from hav- 
ing been the place of confinement for the prisoners taken at the battle of Wakefield. 

The Jewel Office is a dark and strong stone room, in which are kept the crown 
jewels, or regalia. The imperial crown, which is enriched with precious stones of 
""-ery description, was newly modelled for the coronation of his majesty William IV., 
in 1821. Here, likewise, are preserved the other emblems of royalty used at the cor- 
onation of English sovereigns, such as the golden orb, the golden sceptre and its 



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430 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

cross, the sceptre with the dove, St. Edward's staff, state saltcellar, curtana, or sword 
of mercy, go.den spurs, armilla or bracelets, ampulla or golden eagle, and the golden 
spoon. The visiter is likewise shown the silver font used at the baptism of the royal 
family, the state crown worn by the sovereign in parliament, and a large collection 
of ancient plate. 

The Horse Armory is a plain brick building east of the White Tower. Near the 
entrance is shown a model of Sir Thomas Loombe's machine for making organzine, 
or thrown silk ; it contains twenty-six thousand five hundred and eighty-six wheels, 
and ninety-seven thousand seven hundred and forty-six movements, which work 
ninety-three thousand seven hundred and twenty-six yards of silk thread every time 
the wheel goes round, and this revolution is performed three times a minute. This 
apartment is adorned with suits of armor of almost every description, but the most 
sinking are the effigies of the English kings on horseback, armed cap-a-pie. These 
have been recently arranged under the direction of Dr. Meyrick. Several of the cui- 
rases and helmets taken at Waterloo are also kept here, together with a droll figure 
of Henry VIII. 's jester, Will Somers; an Indian suit of armor, composed of iron 
quills ; and the armor of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. 

The Grand Storehouse is a noble edifice, north of White Tower, extending about 
three hundred and forty-five feet in length and sixty in breadth. It is composed of 
brick and stone, and on the north side is a stately doorcase, adorned with four col- 
umns, an entablature and pediment of the Doric order. Under the pediment are the 
king's arms, with carved trophy-work, executed by Gibbons. This noble edifice was 
begun by James II., and finished by William III. The upper story is occupied by 
the Small Armory, containing arms for about two hundred thousand men, all kept 
bright and clean, and disposed in various tasteful forms, representing the sun, the 
royal arms, Medusa's head, &c. 

Here also are preserved eight Maltese flaars, and a curious cannon, taken from 
Malta by the French, and retaken by the English ; the earl of Mar's elegant shield 
and carbine ; the sword carried before the Pretender, when proclaimed king in Scot- 
land ; the highlander's axe with which Colonel Gardiner was killed at Preston-pans, 
and numerous curiosities of a similar description. Beneath the small armory, where 
the royal artillery was formerly arranged, are several pieces of cannon curiously 
carved, and an immense number of musket-barrels piled up in boxes. 

The Spanish armory is principally occupied by the trophies taken from the Span- 
ish armada, such as Spanish thumb-screws, battle-axes, cravats, lances, spears, 
boarding-pikes, &c. Here also are shown, among other curiosities, a representation 
of Queen Elizabeth in armor : the axe which severed the head of Anna Boleyn, as 
well as that of the earl of Essex ; the invincible banner taken from the Spanish 
armada ; a wooden cannon used by Henry VIII. at the siege of Boulogne ; ten pieces 
of cannon presented to Charles II., when a child, to assist him in his military 
studies ; a piece of a scythe taken at the battle of Sedgmoor, and Henry VIII. 's 
walking-staff, with which it is said he perambulated the streets of London, to see 
that his constables performed their duty. 

The Beauchamp tower is noted for the illustrious personages formerly confined 
within its walls. Among them were the ill-fated Anna Boleyn, and the good and 
accomplished Lady Jane Grey. The former is said lo have written her memorable 
letter to Henry VIII. in the apartment called the Mess-house. 

The Lion's tower, bunt by Edward IV., was originally called the Bulwark, but 
received its present name from being occupied as the menagerie. It is situated on 
the right of the inner entrance to the Tower ; but the animals kept here are not 
very numerous. 

The British museum, that great receptacle of valuable curiosities, may, with truth, 
be said to have been founded by Sir Hans Sloane ; but it would be injustice in thus 
mentioning Sir Hans, not to advert to a predecessor of still greater liberality, who 
gave his invaluable collection to the public ; this was Sir Robert Cotton. The books 
and other articles which were offered to the public by Sir Hans Sloane for 20,000/., 
and which had cost him 50,000/., being purchased by the government, it was found 
necessary to provide a place for their reception. Fortunately, Montagu-house, one 
of the largest mansions in the metropolis, was obtained, in 1753, and hence' the ori- 
gin of this celebrated museum, which has been gradually increased by gifts, be- 
quests, and purchases of every species of curiosity, in animals, vegetables, fossils, 
minerals, sculptures, books, MSS., &c, &c. The trustees who conduct the con- 



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431 




432 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

cerns of the institution, are uniformly men of talent, rank, and fortune ; and every 
endeavor is made to forward its interests, and to promote the honor of the nation. 

It is impossible to give an account of all the objects of literature and art in this 
repository, but a slight enumeration of some of the principal collections, and the 
means by which they were accumulated, may be attempted. The Harleian Li' 
brary contains 7,000 manuscripts, bought by the Right Honorable Secretary Har- 
ley, and the noble collection of Sir Simon D'Ewes, among which are numerous 
ancient manuscripts, books, charters, &c, some in Saxon, others of high antiquity, 
which throw great light on history. Here, likewise is deposited John Stowe's col- 
lection, as well as several original leger-books, coucher-books, and cartularies of 
monasteries in this kingdom, as Bury St. Edmond's, St. Alban's, and other religious 
houses. In 1767, an act was passed to enable the trustees to sell or exchange any 
duplicates of books, medals, coins, &c, and to purchase others in their places. In 
1772, the house of commons voted 8,410/. for purchasing antiquities brought from 
Italy, and 840/. to provide a proper receptacle for them ; and in 1804, 16,000/. for 
building additional galleries and apartments for Egyptian and other articles. One 
of the first gifts to the public after the establishment of the institution, was the legacy 
of Colonel Lethieullier, consisting of a curious collection of Egyptian antiquities; to 
which Pitt Lethieullier, Esq., nephew to the colonel, added several others, collected 
by himself during his residence at Grand Cairo. As an addition to the Cotton library, 
Mrs. Maddox, relict of the late Mr. Maddox, historiographer royal, left by her will 
her husband's large and valuable collection of manuscripts, which had engaged his 
attention many years. Major Edwards bequeathed many books ; together with 
7,000/. after the decease of Elizabeth Mills; and the trustees obtained the collections 
of Dr. Birch. In 1760, Mr. Da Costa presented several Hebrew manuscripts ; and 
since that period numberless gifts have been made, one of the principal of which 
was that of the Rev. D. Cracherode, of the Pnncipes Editiones of the Greek and 
Roman classics. 

The Cottoniav Library was collected by the indefatigable exertions and excellent 
judgment of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, who was born in 1570, and died in 1662. 
This inestimable treasury of knowledge, after being with difficulty rescued from the 
fury of the republicans during the interregnum, was secured to the public in 1700, 
by a statute entitled ''An act for the better settling and preserving the library kept in 
the house at Westminster, called Cotton-house, in the name aud family of the Cot- 
tons, for the benefit of the public." The library was removed in 1712, to Essex- 
house, Essex street, Strand, but for what precise reason is not known, where it con- 
tinued till 1730. From this place it was subsequently conveyed to a house in Little 
Dean's yard, Westminster, purchased by the crown of Lord Ashburnham. On the 
23d of October, 1731, a conflagration destroyed a portion of the library, but the re- 
maining books were deposited in the dormitory of the Westminster school, whence 
they were removed to their present situation. The collection of Sir Hans Sloane 
was made by that excellent physician during the course of an active life, protracted 
to the term of ninety-one years, spent in the pursuit of knowledge, and the practice 
of benevolence ; and it was augmented by a collection bequeathed to him by W. 
Courteen, Esq. The King's Libraries consist of printed books and manuscripts, 
collected during several centuries, and munificently bestowed upon the public by 
George III., whose name is inscribed on many of them. 

The British museum also received a considerable accession by the liberality of his 
majesty George IV., who presented the library collected by George III., at Buck- 
ingham-house, for the use of the public. 

To these collections have been added the Elgin marbles, obtained by Lord Elgin, 
during his mission to the Ottoman Porte, and purchased by government for 35,000/. 
The marbles are considered by eminent artists to be in the very first class of ancient 
art, some placing them a little above, and others but a very little below, the Apollo 
Belvidere, the Laocoon, and the Torso of the Belvidere. They suppose them to 
have formed part of the original building of the Parthenon, and to have been execu- 
ted from designs by Phidias. 

Dr. Burney's rare and classical library was purchased by government for 13,500/. 
Among the printed books, the whole number of which is from 13,000 to 14,000 vol- 
umes, the most distinguished portion consists of the collection of Greek dramatic 
authors, which are arranged so as to present every diversity of text and commentary 
at one view; each play being bound up singly, and in so complete but expensive a 



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28 



434 . DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

manner, that it occasioned the sacrifice of two copies of every edition, and in some 
instances of rare editions. Among the manuscripts of classical and other ancient 
authors, are Homer's Iliad, formerly belonging to Mr. Townley, considered superior 
to any other that exists, at least in England ; two copies of the series of Greek ora- 
tors, deemed the most important ever introduced into this country, because they sup- 
ply more lacuna than any other manuscripts, two beautiful copies of the Greek- gos- 
pels of the tenth and twelfth centuries ; the geography of Ptolemy, &c. Another 
part of this collection comprises a numerous and rare series of newspapers, from 
1603 to the present time, amounting in the whole to 7,000 volumes, which is more 
ample than any other extant. There is also a collection of between three hundred 
and four hundred volumes in quarto, containing materials for a history of the stage, 
from 1600 to the present time, and particulars relating to the biograply of actors, 
and persons connected with the stage. 

The building of the British museum forms a square, enclosed by a high brick 
wall, which excludes the house from view; at each corner is a turret ; and over the 
great Ionic arch of the entrance there is a large and handsome cupola. On enter- 
ing the gate of the museum, a spacious quadrangle presents itself with an Ionic col- 
onade on the south side, and the main building on the north. The building meas- 
ures 216 feet in length, and 57 in height to the top of the cornice. The two wings 
are occupied by the officers. The architect, Peter Paget, a native of Marseilles, and 
an artist of great eminence in his time, was sent over by Ralph, first duke of Monta- 
gu, for the sole purpose of constructing this splendid mansion. 

The reading-room is surrounded with shelves of books, secured by wire. Cata- 
logues are placed on shelves within the room, which the reader consults at his 
pleasure, writes his notes from them, pulls the bell-rope near the door, a messenger 
immediately obeys the summons, and in as short a time as possible returns with the 
wished-for book. 

The Royal Academy now occupies its share of the building at Charing Cross, 
named the National Gallery. The annual exhibition commences in May, and is 
always very attractive : one shilling is charged for admission. 

Pail Mall and its neighborhood is a chief place for pictorial exhibitions. The 
British Institution is in Pall Mall ; and societies and individuals have, generally in 
the spring of the year, exhibitions of pictures, panoramas, &c, &c. 

We have only space to mention two or three permanent exhibitions: to attempt 
an enumeration of the many wltich solicit the patronage of the curious, and of all 
who have time and money to spare, in such a place as London, would be unsatisfac- 
tory. The Society for the Encouragement of Arts have their collection in the Adel- 
phi : the Gallery of Practical Science is in the Strand ; and the Colosseum and the 
Diorama are in the Regent's park. The Colosseum is a building of great size, erected 
in imitation of the Pantheon at Rome : it contains a variety of exhibitions — one of 
which is the well-known panorama of London, painted on forty thousand feet of 
canvass. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

London abounds with churches, many of them distinguished for architectural 
beauty. We shall proceed to describe a few of the more remarkable ones. 

Trinity church, Blackhealh hill, is in the earlier pointed style. Some difficulties 
in the site have been turned to good account by the architect, who has rendered the 
disposition and general combination of the details pleasing and picturesque. Al- 
though inclining considerably toward the south, the end of the building facing the 
xoad may be called the east, consequently is the one which, in conformity with cus- 
tom, is appropriated to the altar ; while, as the main street or road immediately 
passes it, it was almost matter of necessity that the principal entrances should be 



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436 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




Trinity Church, Blackheath Hill. 

toward the latter. Accommodation is provided for twelve hundred persons, at a coat 
of four thousand four hundred pounds. 

St Peter's church was opened only a few years since. It presents itself suddenly on 
turninff the corner of a narrow and crooked street between Blackfnars bridge and 
Southwark bridge, and, with the parsonage-house and schools, presents a pleasing and 
SnTarchitectural group. Only a part of the school building is shown m the cut. 
The air of decency and simplicity which characterizes the exterior of the church is 
not preserved in the interior, which is bald and plain in the extreme and dismal 
without being at all solemn. The church measures internally eighty feet by forty- 
six, and affords room for twelve hundred sittings. 

Anv one who has made a trip by water to Richmond must have observed Chelsea 
church, an ancient-looking building of red brick, rising, with its tower, close by the 
side of the river, a few hundred yards below Battersea bridge. Its form, mdepend- 
entlv of the tower, is nearlv a square, of inconsiderable dimensions. Ihe nrst 
church of which this spot was the site is supposed to have been erected m the reign 
of Edward II., or about the beginning of the fourteenth century. The present church, 
however is no older than the year 1667 ; although it is to be considered, in some de- 
gree, rather as the former edifice repaired and enlarged than as altogether a new 
structure. 



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437 




438 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




Chelsea Church, from the River. 

The chief interest which it possesses is derived from the numerous monuments 
which it contains ; .and a good many of these are older than the date we have just 
mentioned, and appear still to retain the positions which they occupied on the walls 
of the former church. The principal alteration seems to have consisted in extending 
the aisles a few yards farther west. The walls were also raised, and the old tower 
was pulled down to the foundation. Of the monuments, the one which every visiter 
naturally feels inclined first to examine is that of Sir Thomas More. It stands on 
the south wall, near the east end, and consists of an arched recess, very plainly deco- 
rated with the crest and armorial bearings of the deceased, under which is a black 
marble slab, bearing a long Latin inscription. 

St. Paul's cathedral is built of Portland stone, in the form of a cross, and is divided, 
by two rows of massy pillars, into a nave and side-aisles. At the extremities of the 
principal transept are also semicircular projections, for porticoes: and at the angles 
of the cross are square projections, which, besides containing staircases, vestries, 
&c, serve as immense buttresses to the dome, which rises from the intersection of 
the nave and transept. 

The west front toward Ludgate street is extremely noble. The elevated portico 
forming the grand entrance consists of twelve Corinthian columns, with an upper 
portico of eight columns in the composite order, supporting a triangular pediment. 
The entablature represents the history of St. Paul's conversion in basso relievo, by 
Francis Bird. On the centre of the pediment is a statue of St. Paul, and at the 
sides are statues of St. James, St. Peter, and the four evangelists. The whole rests 
on an elevated base, the ascent to which is formed by twenty-two steps of black 
marble. At the northwest and southwest angles of the cathedral, two elegant tur- 



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439 




440 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

rets are erected, each terminating in a dome ornamented with a gilt pine-apple. The 
south turret contains the clock ; the north turret the belfry. 

A semicircular portico, consisting of a dome supported by six Corinthian columns, 
leads to the great north door, or entrance to the transept, over which is an entabla- 
ture containing the royal arms supported by angels. The south front of the cathe- 
dral corresponds with the north, excepting the entablature, which represents a 
phoenix rising from the flames ; the performance of Gabriel Cibber. Underneath 
is the expressive word Resurgam. The east end of the church is semicircular ; it 
is ornamented with a variety of fine sculpture, particularly the cipher W. R. within 
a compartment of palm branches, surmounted by an imperial crown, in honor of the 
then reigning sovereign, King William III. The exterior of the walls consist of 
rustic work ornamented with two rows of pilasters, the lower of the Corinthian, 
and the other of the Composite order. The dome, or cupola, rises in beautiful and 
majestic proportion, where the great lines of the cross intersect each other. The 
dome is terminated by a lantern and globe ; and on the summit of the whole is 
placed the emblem of the Christian faitb. 

The cathedral is surrounded by a handsome cast-iron balustrade, which weigh§ 
about two hundred tons, and cost upward of 11,000/. : this rests on a dwarf stone 
wall, and separates the churchyard from the street. Within this enclosure, facing 
Ludgate street, is a marble statue of Queen Anne, holding in her hands the emblems 
of royalty, and accompanied by figures representing Great Britain, Ireland, France, 
and America. It was executed by Bird. The interior of the cathedral is not so 
richly decorated as the exterior. The pavements consists of square slabs of black 
and white marble, placed alternately ; and the floor of the altar is interspersed with 
porphyry. The flags which hang in various parts of the dome and nave are trophies 
of British valor. Those near the north entrance were taken from the French by 
Lord Howe, in 1794 ; and those opposite, on the right, from the Spaniards by Lord 
Nelson, in 1797 ; the Dutch flags, on the left, were taken by Lord Keith, at the Cape 
of Good Hope, and by Lord Duncan, at Camperdown. Over the western aisle are 
the flags taken by the duke of York from the French, and those captured during the 
American war. 

A circular staircase, within the southwest pier, leads by an easy ascent to the 
Whispering-gallery, which encircles the lower part of the dome at the extreme edge 
of the cornice. From this situation, the view of the church, the cupola, and the 
lantern, is strikingly sublime ; and here the paintings by Sir James Thornhill on the 
compartments of the dome are seen to the greatest advantage. These designs are 
illustrative of the most remarkable occurrences in St. Paul's life. His miraculous 
conversion near Damascus (Acts, chap ix.) St. Paul preaching before Sergius Pau- 
lus, with the divine judgment upon Elymas the sorcerer (xiii.) The reverence 
offered to Paul and Barnabas at Lystra, by the priests of Jupiter (xiv.) The im- 
prisonment of Paul and Silas at Philippi, with the conversion of the jailer (xvi.) 
Paul preaching to the Athenians (xvii.) The magic books of the Ephesians burnt 
(xix.) St. Paul's defence before Agrippa and Bernice (xxiv.) His shipwreck at 
Melita (xxviii.) 

The Whispering-gallery takes its name from the well-known reverberation of 
sounds ; so that the softest whisper is accurately and loudly conveyed to the ear at 
the distance of one hundred feet, the diameter of the dome in this part. If the door 
be shut forcibly it produces a strong reverberation similar to thunder. The same 
staircase communicates with the galleries over the north and south aisles of the 
nave, containing the library and model-room. 

The library was furnished with a collection of books by Bishop Compton, whose 
portrait is preserved here ; but the flooring, consisting of upward of two thousand 
pieces of oak, seems to be pointed out as the object most deserving the attention of 
si casual visiter. The corresponding room in the north gallery contains a model of 
the beautiful altar-piece intended by the architect to ornament the east end of the 
church, and a large model for a building in the style of a Grecian temple. This is 
regarded as the design most valued by Sir Christopher Wren ; but in the opinion 
of competent judges, we have the masterpiece of his architectural skill in this 
cathedral. This room contains also some of the funeral decorations used at the 
interment of Lord Nelson. 

The clock-works are well deserving the attention of the curious : the pendulum is 
fourteen feet long, and the weight at the end is one hundred and twelve pounds ; the 



LONDON. 441 

dials on the outside are regulated by a smaller one within ; the length of the minute- 
hands on the exterior dials is eight feet, and the weight of each seventy-five pounds , 
the length of the hour-hands is five feet five inches, and the weight forty-four pounds 
each ; the diameter of the dial is eighteen feet ten inches, and the length of the 
hour-figures two feet two and a half inches. The fine-toned bell which strikes the 
hours is clearly distinguishable from every other in the metropolis, and has been 
distinctly heard at the distance of twenty miles. It is about ten feet in diameter, 
and is said to weigh four and one fourth tons. This bell is tolled on the death 
of any member of the royal family, of the lord-mayor, bishop of London, or dean 
of the cathedral. 

The ball and cross surmounting the lantern, re-erected in 1822, are constructed, 
as to outline and dimensions, on the same plan as the originals, but the interior has 
been much improved by the substitution of copper and gun-metal bands for those 
of iron. The whole height of the copper-work, which weighs above four tons, is 
twenty-seven feet. The iron spindle in the centre, and standards to strengthen the 
copper-work, weigh about three tons, forming a total weight of above seven tons. 
The old ball, measuring six feet two inches in diameter, was made of fourteen 
pieces ; while the new ball, measuring six feet, and weighing abollt half a ton with- 
out its ornaments or standards, is constructed of only two — a fair demonstration of 
the improved state of science. It is capable of containing eight persons. The old 
ball, including the spindle, standards, &c, weighed two and a half tons, and the 
cross one and a half. The ascent to the ball is formed by six hundred and sixteen 
steps, of which the first two hundred and eighty lead to the Whispering-gallery, and 
the next two hundred and fifty-four to the upper gallery. 

About the year 1790, a scheme was suggested, and has succeeded, to break the 
monotonous uniformity of the architectural masses in the interior of the cathedral 
by the introduction of monuments and statues in honor of the illustrious dead. The 
first erected was to the memory of John Howard : opened to public inspection A. D. 
1796. This statue is placed near the iron gate leading to the south aisle. It is 
the work of the late John Bacon, R. A., and represents the philanthropist in the 
act of trampling upon chains and fetters, while bearing in his right hand the key 
of a prison, and in his left a scroll, on which is engraved, " Plan for the improve- 
ment of prisons and hospitals." The eloquent inscription was written by the late 
Samuel Whitbread, Esq. 

The monument in memory of Nelson is executed by Flaxman : the statue of 
Lord Nelson, dressed in the pelisse received from the grand seignior, leans on an 
anchor. Beneath, on the right of the hero, Britannia directs the attention of young 
seamen to Nelson, their great example. The British lion on the other side guards 
the monument. On the cornice of the pedestal are the words " Copenhagen, Nile, 
Trafalgar." The figures on the pedestal represent the North sea, the German 
ocean, the Nile, and the Mediterranean. 

The following monuments may likewise be seen here : Sir William Jones repre- 
sented leaning on the Institutes of Menu, by Bacon, jun. ; Earl Howe, by Flaxman , 
Sir Joshua Reynolds, by the same artist ; Captain Hardinge, by the late C. Manning ; 
Sir Ralph Abercrombie, by Westmacott ; Lord Rodney, by C. Rossi ; Captain West- 
cott, by Banks ; Sir John Moore, by Bacon, jun. ; Lord Collingwood, by Westmacott ; 
Captain Duff, by Bacon ; Captains Moss and Riou, by C. Rossi ; General Dundas, by 
Bacon, jun. ; Generals Craufurd and Mackinnon, by Bacon, jun. ; Dr. Johnson, with 
an inscription by Dr. Parr ; Marquis Cornwallis and Lord Heathfield, by Rossi ; 
General Picton, by Gahagan ; General Ponsonby, by Baily ; Captain Hutt and Cap- 
tain Burgess, by Banks ; General Bowes and Colonel Cadogan, by Chantrey ; to- 
gether with monuments of Captain Faulkner, Captain Miller, Generals Hay, Mac- 
kenzie, and Langworth. Over the entrance to the choir is a marble slab with a 
Latin inscription, which may be translated — "Beneath, lies Christopher Wren, 
builder of this church and city, who lived upward of ninety years, not for him- 
self, but for the public benefit. Reader, do you seek for his monument ? — Look 
around !" 

Lord Nelson's perishable remains are interred in a vault under the central part 
of. the building, and near them the remains of his friend Lord Collingwood. 

Among other eminent characters whose bodies have been deposited in these 
vaults are— Sir Christopher Wren ; Dr. Newton, bishop of Bristol ; Alexander Wed- 
derburn, earl of Rosslyn ; Sir John Braithwaite ; Sir Joshua Reynolds and Benjamin 



442 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

West, successively presidents of the Royal Academy ; James Barry, John Opie, and 
Henry Fuseli, painters ; and John Rennie, engineer. 

The crypt beneath the cathedral contains inscriptions to Sir Christopher Wren 
and his daughter, to Bishop Newton, the painters Barry and Opie, and other emi- 
nent persons. But the chief object of curiosity is the tomb of Nelson. In the 
middle avenue of the crypt, immediately beneath the centre of the dome, stands a 
sarcophagus -of black and white marble, resting on a pedestal, on which are in- 
scribed the words "Horatio Vise. Nelson." The sarcophagus and pedestal were 
brought from Cardinal Wolsey's tomb-house at Windsor: they were prepared by 
the cardinal for his own entombment. Here also maybe seen the celebrated figure 
of Dr. Donne, representing him as a corpse : it was executed in his lifetime, and 
was frequently the object of his contemplation. 

The choir is divided from the body of the church by an organ-gallery, supported 
by eight Corinthian columns of black and white marble, and enriched with beauti- 
ful carving by Gibbons, whose decorative performances embellish every part of the 
choir. The episcopal throne near the altar is peculiarly elegant. The bishop's 
seat for ordinary occasions, on the south side, is distinguished by a mitre and peli- 
can ; the lord-mayor's seat, on the opposite side, has the city mace and other appro- 
priate devices. The dean's stall, under the organ-gallery, is distinguished by a 
canopy, and ornamented with sculptures of fruit and flowers. 

The pulpit was originally placed near the altar, opposite to the bishop's throne, 
but has been removed to a more central situation, for the greater convenience of 
the auditors. The reading-desk is supported by an eagle with expanded wings, 
standing on a pillar, surrounded by rails: the whole of gilt brass. 

The sermons were anciently delivered in the open air, at a cross in the church- 
yard, as already stated ; from which circumstance they are still termed Paul's-cross 
sermons. The preachers are nominated by the bishop of London. 

The chaplain to the lord-mayor, for the time being, is the preacher on all state 
holydays ; and on the first Sunday in Easter and Trinity terms, when the lord- 
mayor, aldermen, judges, and city officers, attend the cathedral church. 

The choral service is performed daily in great perfection at St. Paul's. The ser- 
vice commences at three quarters past nine, precisely, in the morning, aud at a 
quarter past three in the afternoon; when the solemn harmonies of Tallis, Gibbons, 
and Purcell, the lighter compositions of Boyce and Kent, and the sublime choruses 
of Handel, may be heard with the fullest effect: but the greatest treat for the ad- 
mirers of sacred harmony, is the music-meeting in the month of May, for the benefit 
of the widows and orphans of necessitous clergymen. Handel's grand Dettingen 
Te Deum, several of his most beautiful choruses, and an appropriate anthem by Dr. 
Boyce, are performed by a powerful orchestra, supported by the principal gentlemen, 
both clerical and lay, belonging to the three choirs of St. Paul's, Westminster abbey, 
and the Chapel royal, who make a point of attending on this occasion, and who 
render their assistance gratuitously. One of the royal dukes, the lord-mayor, most 
of the bishops, and many other distinguished characters, attend as stewards. The 
doors open at ten, and divine service commences at twelve o'clock. A public re- 
hearsal of this music always takes place a day or two before the meeting. The 
cathedral is likewise open for service every day, except on Sundays, at six in the 
morning during summer, and at seven in winter. 

Another meeting, equally honorable and gratifying to the benevolence of the age, 
is held in the month of June, when six or eight thousand children, clothed and edu- 
cated in the parochial schools, are assembled in the metropolitan church, to offer 
their infant homage to their Creator. A rehearsal of this meeting takes place a day 
or two before, when persons are admitte r d at 6d. each. Tickets for the meeting 
itself can only be obtained of persons who patronise the schools. 

The dimensions of the cathedral are: — 
Length from east to west, within the walls ------ 500 feet. 

Breadth of the nave and choir _.---.-- 100 " 

From north to south, though the transept - - - - - - 285 " 

The circuit - 2,292 " 

The height, exclusive of the dome -------- 110 ". 

Height from the vaults to the top of the cross - ----- 404 " 

Height from the centre of the floor to the top of the cross ... 340 " 

Ground plot, 2 acres, 16 perches. 70 feet. Expense of building, £1,500,000. 






LONDON. 



443 



"Westminster abbey bears also the name of the collegiate church of St. Peter. 01 
the founding of this abbey on " Thorney island," there are so many miraculous 
stories related by monkish writers, that the recital of them now would hardly be 
endured. It may be presumed that both the ancient church, dedicated to St. Paul, in 
London, and this, dedicated to St. Peter, in Westminster, were among the earliest 
works of the first converts to Christianity in Britain. With their new religion, they 
introduced a new style of building ; and their great aim seems to have been, by affect- 
ing loftiness and ornament, to bring the plain simplicity of the pagan architects into 
contempt. Historians, agreeably to the legend, have fixed the era of the first abbey 
in the sixth century, and ascribed to Sebert the honor of conducting the work, and 
of completing that part of it at least that now forms the east angle, which probably 
was all that was included in the original plan. To the reign of Edward the Confes- 
sor, the first abbey remained a monument exposed to the sacrilegious fury of the times ; 
but by the prevailing influence of Christianity in that reign, the ruins of the ancient 
building were cleared away, and a most magnificent structure for that age erected in 
their place. In its form it bore the figure of a cross, which afterward became the 
pattern for cathedral building throughout the kingdom. Henry III. not only pulled 
down and enlarged the plan of this ancient abbey, but added a chapel, which he ded- 
icated to the blessed Virgin ; but it was not till the reign of Henry VII. that the stately 
and magnificent chapel, now known by his name was planned and executed. 

From the death of Henry VII., till the reign of William and Mary, no care was 
taken to repair or preserve the ancient church. By the demands which Henry VIII. 
made upon it, and the ravages it sustained during the unhappy civil commotions, 
its ancient beauty was in a great measure destroyed ; nor did their majesties restore 
it till it became an object of parliamentary attention, and till a considerable sum was 
voted for that purpose only. This vote being passed, Sir Christopher Wren was em- 
ployed to decorate and give it a thorough repair, which that able architect so skil- 
fully and faithfully executed, that the building is thought, at this day, to want none 
of its original strength, and to have even acquired additional majesty by two new 
towers, which are situated at the western entrance. 




Westminster Abbey and Hall, before the Alterations of Sir Christopher Wren. 

The principal object of attention of the exterior of Westminster abbey, with the 
exception of the towers and Henry VII. 's chapel, is the magnificent portico leading 
into the north cross, which, by some, has been styled the Beautiful, or Solomon's 
Gate. It is built in the Gothic style, and adorned with a window of modern design, 
admirably executed. 

The interior has a commanding appearance ; the Gothic arches separating the nave 
from the sides aisles are supported by forty-eight pillars of gray marble, which are 
so well disposed that the whole body of the church may be seen on entering the 
west door. 

The choir, which is comparatively of recent date, was constructed under the direc- 
tion of the late Mr. Keene, surveyor to the abbey, but has been refitted since the 



444 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




LONDON. 



lib 




Western Entrance of Westminster Abbey. 



coronation of his majesty George IV., in 1821. It is executed in the ancient Gothic 
style, which the architect has so far improved as to mix simplicity with ornament ; 
and these he has so happily blended, as to produce the most pleasing effect. 

The modern marble alter-piece, which was designed by Sir C. Wren, for the chapel 
at Whitehall, and given to this abbey by Queen Anne, was taken down at the corona- 
tion, and the original altar-piece has been restored as nearly as possible to its ancient 
design. The Mosaic pavement in front of the altar is said to have been executed by 
Richard de Ware, abbot of Westminster. It is a very curious specimen of work- 
manship. 

On the north side of the choir are the monuments of Aymer de Valence, earl of 
Pembroke, and his countess, and Edmund Crouchback, earl of Lancaster ; and on 
the south side are those of Sebert, the original founder of the abbey, and Anne of 
Cleves ; all of which have recently been repaired, and are well worthy the notice of 
the antiquary. 

The roof of the lantern, which was destroyed by fire July 9th, 1803, has been re- 
built in a style more suitable to the other part of the edifice than the old one, and is 
richly adorned with carving and gilding. 

Edward the Confessor's chapel is situated behind the altar, at the east end of the 
choir, and is so called because it contains the shrine of St. Edward, an exquisite 
specimen of workmanship, executed by Pietro Cavalini, by order of Henry III. It 
is now very much dilapidated, but still bears marks of its ancient splendor. In this 
chapel are the tombs of Editha, Edward's queen — of Henry III. — of his son, Edward 
I., and several other royal monuments. Here also are kept the iron sword of Edward 
I., a part of his shield, the helmet and shield of Henry V., and the coronation chairs. 
The most ancient, under the seat of which is placed the stone said to have been 
Jacob's pillow, was brought with the regalia, from Scone in Scotland, by Edward [., 



446 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

in 1297 ; the other chair was made for Mary, the consort of "W illiara III. The screen 
of thechapel isadorned with several statues, and withfourteen legendary hieroglyphics 
respecting the Confessor, executed in basso-relievo. 

Henry VTI.'s chapel, which is so called from its founder, was commenced in 1502, 
the first stone having been laid in the presence of this monarch, and was completed 
in about ten years. It is supposed by some to have been constructed under the direc- 
tion of Sir Reginald Bray, and by others under that of Bishop Fox, while others im- 
agine that Bolton, the prior of St. Bartholomew's, was the architect employed. It 
is situated east of the abbey, and is constructed in the florid Gothic style. The ex- 
terior is adorned with fourteen octagonal towers jutting from the building in different 
angles, and ornamented with a profusion of sculpture. The whole was repaired be* 
tween 1809 and 1823, at the expense of forty-two thousand pounds which was sup- 
plied by parliament. 

The ascent to the inside of the chapel is formed by steps of black marble, under 
a stately portico, which leads to the gates of the body, or nave, on each hand, opening 
into the side aisles. The gates are well worth observation ; they are of brass, most 
curiously wrought in the manner of framework, the panels being ornamented with 
a rose and portcullis alternately. The lofty ceiling, which is in stone, is wrought 
with an astonishing variety of figures. TJie stalls are of brown wainscot, with Gothic 
canopies, most beautifully carved, as are the seats, with strange devices. The pave- 
ment is of black and white marble, done at the charge of Dr. Killigrew, once pre- 
bendary of this abbey. 

The view from the entrance presents the brass chapel and tomb of the founder, 
and round it, where the east end forms a semi-circle, are the chapels of the dukes of 
Buckingham and Richmond. The windows, which are fourteen in the upper, and 
nineteen in the lower range, including the side aisles and portico, were formerly of 
painted or diapered glass, and in every pane a white rose, the badge of Lancaster, 
and portcullises, the badge of the Beauforts, of which a few only are now remaining. 
The roof is nearly flat, and is supported on arches between the nave and side aisles 
which turn upon twelve stately Gothic pillars, curiously adorned with figures, fruit. 
age, and foliage. 

This chapel, as already stated, was designed as a sepulchre, in which none but 
such as were of blood-royal should ever be interred ; accordingly the will of the 
founder has been so far observed, that all that have hitherto been admitted are of the 
highest quality, and can trace their descent from some of the ancient kings. 

In the north aisles are the monuments of Queen Elizabeth ; the murdered princes, 
Edward V., and his brother Richard ; Sophia and Maria, infant daughters of James 
I. ; Charles Montague, first earl of Halifax; and George Savile, marquis of Halifax. 
Here likewise is preserved the armor of General Monk. 

In the south aisle are the monuments of Mary, queen of Scots; Catherine, Lady 
Walpole ; Margaret Beaufort, countess of Richmond and Derby, the mother of Henry 
VII. ; George Monk, the first duke of Albemarle, and Christopher his son, the second 
duke. Here also is a monument, on which lies a lady finely robed, the effigy of 
Margaret Douglas, daughter of Margaret, queen of Scots, by the earl of Angus. This 
lady, as the English inscription expresses, had to her great-grandfather, King Edward 
IV. ; to her grandfather, King Henry VII. ; to her uncle, King Henry VIII. ; to her 
cousin-german, King Edward VI. ; to her brother, King James V. of Scotland ; to 
her grandson, King James VI. ; having to her great-grandmother and grandmother 
two queens both named Elizabeth : to her mother, Margaret, queen of Scots, to her 
aunt, Mary, the French queen ; to her cousins-german, Mary and Elizabeth, queens 
of England ; to her niece and daughter-in-law, Mary, queen of Scots. This lady, 
who was very beautiful, was privately married in 1537, to Thomas Howard, son of 
the duke of Norfolk, upon which account both of them were committed to the tower 
by King Henry VIII., her uncle, for affiancing without his consent, and he died in 
prison ; but this Margaret, being released, was soon after married to Matthew, earl 
of Lennox, bywhom she had the handsome Lord Darnley, father of King James I., 
whose effigy is foremost on the tomb, in a kneeling posture, with the crown over his 
head, having been married some time to Mary, queen of Scots, but, in the 21st year 
of his age, murdered, not without some suspicion of foul practices in the queen 
There are several children besides round the tomb of Margaret, of whom only three 
are mentioned in history, the rest dying young. This great lady died March 10th, 
1577. At the end is the royal vault, as it is called, in which the remains of King 



LONDON. 



447 




Tomb of Queen Elizabeth, in the North Aisle of Henry the Seventh's Chapel, Westminster Abbey 

Charles II., King William III., and Queen Mary, his consort, Queen Anne, and 
Prince George, are all deposited. Over them, in a wainscot press, is the effigy of 
King Charles II. in wax-work, resembling life, and dressed in the robes he wore at 
Windsor, at the installation of the knights of the garter. 

From this aisle is an entry into the nave of the chapel, where are installed, with 
great ceremony, the knights of the most honorable order of the Bath : which order 
was revived in the reign of King George I., in 1725. In their stalls are placed brass 
plates of their arms, and over them hang their banners, swords, and helmets. Under 
the stalls are seats for the esquires ; each knight has three, whose arms are engraved 
on brass plates. 

The principal object of admiration here, both for its antiquity and its workman- 
ship, is the magnificent tomb of Henry VII., and Elizabeth his queen, the last of the 
house of York who wore the English crown. It is ornamented with many devices, 
alluding to his family and alliances ; such as portcullises, denoting his relation to 
'he Beauforts by his mother's side ; roses twisted and crowned in memory of the 
union of the two houses of Lancaster and York ; and at each end a crown in a bush, 
referring to the crown of Richard III., found in a hawthorn near Bosworth Field, 
where that famous battle was fought for a diadem, which turning in the favor of 
Henry, his impatience was so great to be crowned that he caused the ceremony to 
be performed on the spot, with that very crown the competitor had lost. 

In a fine vault under Henry the Seventh's chapel, is the burying-place of the royal 
family, erected by King George II. 



448 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

The dimensions of Henry VII. 's chapel are : — 

Length from east to west, including the walls ..... 115 ieeL 

Breadth, including the walls - - -80" 

Height of the octagonal towers - -71" 

Height to the top of the roof 86" 

Height to the top of the west turrets ..... - 102 " 

Length of the nave 104 " 

Breadth of the nave- -- 36" 

Height of the nave - - - - 61" 

Breath of each aisle 17" 

St. Andrew's chapel, which is next to the north cross, and the others which sur- 
round the choir, are crowded with monuments of noble personages, worthy of the 
attention of the curious. 

St. Benedict's chapel contains the tomb and effigies of Archbishop Langham, and 
at the corner is an iron gate opening into the south cross aisle. 

The Poets' Corner is so called from the number of monuments erected there to 
celebrate English poets, though we find here a most magnificent monument erected 
at the south end to the memory of John, duke of Argyle ; and others to Camden the 
antiquary; Doctor Isaac Barrow, the divine; and Thomas Parr, who died at the 
a<*e of 152 years. Among the interesting monuments in Poets' Corner, is that raised 
to the memory of William Shakspere — though men who live in their works never 
want statues. Both the design and workmanship of it are extremely elegant. The 
figure of Shakspere, his attitude, his dress, his shape, his air, are so delicately ex- 
pressed by the sculptor, that they can not be too much admired or praised ; and the 
beautiful lines that appear upon the scroll are very happily chosen from the poet's 
works. The heads on the pedestal, representing Henry V., Richard III., and Queen 
Elizabeth, three principal characters in his plays, are likewise appropriate orna- 
ments. The taste that is shown does honor to those under whose direction it was 
constructed, namely, the earl of Burlington, Dr. Mead, Mr. Pope, and Mr. Martin. 
It was designed by Kent, executed by Scheemakers, and the expense defrayed by the 
grateful contributions of the public. 

Near this tomb were interred the remains of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the 
poet, the wit, and the orator; whose only monument is a black marble slab, placed 
» there by his friend Mr. P. Moore. Here likewise may be seen the names of " rare 
Ben Jonson," Spenser, Chaucer, Butler, Milton, Mason, Gray, Prior, Granville Sharp, 
Mrs. Pritchard, Thomson, Mrs. Rowe, Gay, Goldsmith, Handel, Chambers, Addison, 
Dr. Hales, Sir. J. Pringle, Sir R. Taylor, Wyatt, Grabius, Casaubon, Garrick, Dryden, 
Cowley, Davenant, Gifford the translator of Juvenal and many years editor of the 
Quarterly Review, &c. 

The monuments in the other parts of the abbey are too numerous to be minutely 
detailed. In the south aisle are those of Dr. South, Dr. Vincent, Sir Cloudesley 
Shovel, Dr. Watts, General Paoli, Dr. Burney, Thomas Thynne, whose murder in 
his own carriage is here represented, &c. In the west aisle are those of Major An- 
dre, whose remains were brought from America and interred here, in 1821 ; Sir J. 
Chardin, Lord Howe, Admiral Tyrell, W. Congreve, W. Pitt, who is represented 
speaking in his robes as chancellor of the exchequer, Sir Thomas Hardy, Sir God- 
frey Kneller, Banks the sculptor, Dr. Mead, Sir Isaac Newton, Lord Stanhope, by 
Rysbach, &c. In the north aisle, those of Lord Ligonier, General Wolfe, Pulteney, 
earl of Bath, Dr. Arnold, Dr. Croft, Dr. Burney, Mr. Perceval, two Knights Tem- 
plars, &c. 

In the north transept were buried, near to each other, Pitt, earl of Chatham, those 
celebrated rivals, Pitt and Fox, Grattan, the Irish orator, and Lord Londonderry. 
Here likewise are the monuments of Lord Mansfield, earl of Chatham, Admiral War- 
ren, Sir Eyre Coote, Jonas Hanway, Mr. Horner, by Chantrey, &c. 

St. Erasmus's chapel contains the tombs of Lord Hunsdon and Lord Exeter, in the 
time of Elizabeth ; and wax figures of Queen Elizabeth, William and Mary, Lord 
Chatham, Queen Anne, and Lord Nelson. 

T)xe chapel of St. John and St. Michael is adorned with the monument of Lady 
Nightingale executed by Roubiliac, and remarkable for the beauty of its workman- 
ship ; the lady is represented as protected by her husband, while a fine figure of 



LONDON. 449 

Death is seen coming out of a tomb to hurl his dart. Here also are the tombs of Ad- 
miral Kempenfelt and Pococke. 

Henry V.'s chapel contains models of the abbey and of several churches in Lon- 
don, among which are St. John's, Westminster, St. Mary-le-Strand, St. Clement 
Danes, &c. 

The dimensions of the abbey are, exclusive of Henry VII.'s chapel — 

Length from east to west, including walls 416 feet. 

Height of the west towers --------- 225 " 

Length within the walls --------- 383 " 

Breadth at the transept .--- 203 " 

Length of the nave ---------- 166 " 

Breadth of the nave - - - - -•- - - - -39" 

Height of the nave ---------- 102 " 

Breadth of each aisle ----------17" 

Length of the choir ----- 156 " 

Breadth of the choir 28 " 

Besides the church, many of the ancient appendages of the aJobey remain. The 
cloisters are entire, and filled with monuments. They are built in a quadrangular 
form, with piazzas toward the court, in which several of the prebendaries have 
houses. 

The entrance into the chapter-house (built in 1250) is on one side of the cloisters, 
through a rich and magnificent Gothic portal, the mouldings of which are most ex- 
quisitely carved. By consent of the abbot, in 1377, the commons of Great Britain 
first held their parliaments in this place, the crown undertaking the repa'irs. Here 
they sat till the year 1547, when Edward VI, granted them the chapel of St. Stephen. 
It is at present filled with the public records, among which is the original Doomsday- 
Book, now above seven hundred years old : it is in as fine preservation as if it were 
the work of yesterday. 

Beneath the chapter-house is a very singular crypt, the roof of which is supported 
by massy plain ribs, diverging from the top of a short round pillar, quite hollow. 
The walls are not less than eighteen feet thick, and form a firm base to the super- 
structure. 

The Jerusalem-Chamber, built by Littlington, formed a part of the abbot's lodg- 
ings. It is noted for having been the place where Henry IV. breathed his last : he 
had been seized with a swoon while praying before the shrine of St. Edward, and, 
being carried into this room, asked, on recovering, where he was. Being informed, 
he answered — to use the words of Shakspere, founded on history — 

" Laud be to God ! — even here my life must end. 
It hath been prophesied to me many years 
I should not die but in Jerusalem, 
Which vainly I supposed the Holy Land !" 

Not far from the abbey stood the sanctuary, the place of refuge absurdly granted, 
in former times, to criminals of certain denominations. The church belonging to it 
was in the form of a cross. It is supposed to have been the work of the Confessor. 
Within its precincts was born Edward V. ; and here his unhappy mother took refuge, 
with her younger son Richard, to secure him from his cruel uncle, who had already 
possession of the elder brother. 

To the west of the sanctuary stood the eleemosynary, or almonry, where the alms 
of the abbey were distributed. But it is still more remarkable for having been the 
place where the first printing-press ever known in England was erected. It was in 
1474, when William Caxton, encouraged by " the great," and probably by the learned 
Thomas Milling, then abbot, produced " The Game and Play of the Chesse," the 
first book ever printed in Great Britain. There is a slight difference about the 
p. ace in which it was printed, but all agree that it was within the precincts of this 
religious house. 

The abbey is open every day for divine service, at ten in the morning and at three 
in the afternoon. 

St. Stephen's, in Walbrook, is deemed the master-piece of the celebrated Sir 
Christopher Wren, and is said to exceed every modern structure in the world in pro- 

29 



450 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




Interior of St. Stephen's, Walbrook. 

portion and elegance. The plan is original, yet simple; the elevation surprising, 
yet chaste and beautiful : the dome, supported by eight arches, springing from eight 
single columns, is wonderfully light and scenic in its effect. Over the altar is a fine 
picture by West, representing the interment of St. Stephen. This church is seventy- 
five feet long, and fifty-six broad, and the central roof is thirty-four feet high. 

The Temple church is, in part at least, perhaps the very oldest building now re- 
maining in the metropolis. The character of the architecture of the circular edifice 
which forms its western extremity, in which the windows are terminated by the cir- 




Porch of the Temple Church. 



LONDON. 



151 




Interior of the Temple Church. 

cular or jNorman, and not by the pointed or Gothic arch, proves it to be a work of 
not a later date than the twelfth century. And this inference is confirmed by the 
historical fact of its having been dedicated to the Virgin Mary, by Heraclius, the 
patriarch of Jerusalem, when he was in England, in the year 1185. At this time it 
was probably newly built. The ground now occupied by what are called the inner 
and the middle temples, and also a space lying to the west of the latter, formerly 
designated the outer temple, and now covered by Essex street and its neighborhood, 
was anciently the property and chief seat, in England, of the wealthy and renowned 
community of military monks, the Knights Templars. The first house, or precep- 
tory, as it was called, which the Templars had in this country, was situated on the 
south side of Holhorn, on the spot where the Southampton buildings now stand. 
Thence they removed, probably about the time of the dedication of the church, to 
this dwelling in Fleet street, which accordingly went for a long time by the name 
of the " New Temple." The body, or eastern part of the church, appears to have 
been built about the year 1240 ; and here the arches of tjhe windows are pointed, in 
conformity with the style which had by this time been generally introduced. For- 
merly the dedication of the church by Heraclius was recorded in a Latin inscription, 
cut in the characters of the time, on a stone over the southwest entrance to the round 
end. This stone was broken by the workmen, who were employed in executing 



452 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



some repairs on the building after a fire, in 1695 ; but an accurate copy of the inscrip- 
tion had been taken a short time before, and it has lately been replaced in its old sit- 
uation. 

The Temple church contains many sepulchral monuments ; but the most remark- 
able are a number of figures in stone, disposed in two groups of five each. Five of 
these figures are cross-legged, from which it has been usual to consider them as the 
effigies of warriors who had fought with the infidels in the Holy Land. It does not 
appear, however, that the attitude in question really has that import ; it being usual 
so to represent persons on their tombs who had merely formed the design or made a 
vow of performing a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, whether they had fulfilled it or not 




Monumental Figures in the Temple Church. 

The figure of the knights in the Temple church are supposed to have been collected 
from various places, and to have been laid in their present position long after the 
deaths of the persons whom they represent. Antiquaries have formed various con- 
jectures with regard to the individuals for whom these figures are intended ; but they 
have not been able to offer anything on the subject beyond conjecture, and in refer- 
ence to several of the monuments not even that. 

The Temple church very nearly fell a sacrifice to the great fire in 1666. It was 
the stonework of this building, indeed, by which the flames were first effectually 
resisted. It suffered much injury, however, in 1695, from another fire, which entirely 
destroyed a considerable part of the Temple. On that occasion, and also in 1811, it 
underwent extensive repairs ; but it has within the last few years been still more 
completely renovated under the direction of Mr. Smirke, who has shown great taste 
in his restoration of the decayed parts of the building. The Temple church has 
generally been considered as having been built on the model of the Basilica, or Me- 
tropolitan temple of Jerusalem, from which the knights by whom it was founded, 
derived their name. The following is the architectural description of the edifice, as 
given by Mr. Brayley in his Londoniana : — 

" All the exterior walls, which are five feet in thickness, are strengthened by pro- 
jecting buttresses. In the upright, the vestibule (that is the round part) consists ol 
two stories, the upper one being about half the diameter of the lower story, which 
measures fifty-eight feet across the area. The lower part of the upper story is sur- 
rounded by a series of semicircular arches, intersecting each other, and forming a 
blank arcade ; behind which, and over the circular aisle (if it may be so termed), 
there is a continued passage. The staircase leading to the latter is on the northwest 
side ; and about halfway up, in the substance of the wall, is a small dark cell, most 
probably intended as a place of confinement. Over the arcade are six semicircular 
headed windows. The clustered columns which support the roof are each formed 
by four distinct shafts, which are surrounded, near the middle, by a triplicated band. 



LONDON. 



453 




Capitals of Pillars of the Porch of the Temple Church. 

and have square-headed capitals ornamented in the Norman style. The principal 
entrance is directly from the west, but there is a smaller one on the southwest side : 
the former opens from an arched porch, and consists of a receding semicircular arch- 
way, having four columns on each side, supporting archivolt mouldings, which, like 
the capitals and jambs, are ornamented with sculptured foliage, busts, and lozenges." 
Highgate church is built on the summit of Highgate hill. It is a beautiful edifice, 
with a fine Gothic spire, which is an honorable monument to the taste of Mr. l! 




Highgate Church. 



454 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



Vulliamy, its architect. It is impossible to imagine a more beautiful site than that 
chosen for the church, or a style of building better adapted to the situation. The inte- 
rior is extremely neat and commodious. 




Church of St. Martin's iu the Fields. 



The church of St. Martin's is perhaps, next to St. Paul's, the finest building in the 
Grecian style, of which the metropolis has to boast. It is accounted the happiest 
effort of the eminent architect, James Gibbs, a native of Scotland, by whom it was 
erected, and who is also well known as the designer and builder of the senate-house 
at Cambridge, the Radcliffe library at Oxford, and various other public edifices. The 
portico, in particular, consisting of very lofty Corinthian columns, to which there is 



LONDON. 455 

an ascent by a long flight of steps, has been greatly admired. The heauty and gran- 
deur of this noble elevation, however, have only been lately rendered visible by the 
removal of the old buildings by which it used to be so closely surrounded ; and its 
effect will not be properly appreciated till the completion of the magnificent improve 
ments in progress in this quarter of the metropolis. The spire also of St. Martin's is 
one of the most beautiful in London ; and the interior of the church, and especially its 
richly-ornamented ceiling, may be fairly described as altogether worthy of its exter- 
nal architecture. Its length is one hundred and forty feet, its breadth sixty, and its 
height forty-five. The curve of the ceiling is elliptical. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

PUBLIC WALKS. 

The parks of London lie on its western side. St. James's extends from behind 
the Horse Guards and government offices in Whitehall and Downing street to the 
new palace ; its adjunct, the Green park, reaches thence to Piccadilly and Hvde 
park corner. The chief western entrance into the metropolis (the road from 
Bath, &c), which runs into Piccadilly, separates the western extremity of the 
Green park from the southeast side of Hyde park ; and at this particular spot the 
stranger, who is entering London for the first time, will receive a favorable impres- 
sion of the grandeur of the metropolis. On either side of the road or street, which 
is spacious, are handsome gateways, that on the right leading into the Green park, 
and those on the left into Hyde park. The central and side gateways leading into 
Hyde park are connected by a fine screen ; and the bronze gates in these and in ihe 
Green park gateway on the opposite side are beautiful specimens of art. 

St. James's park is the oldest of the metropolitan parks. It appears to have been 
a waste marshy piece of ground till the reign of Henry VIII. : it was partly drained 
and enclosed by him. He built a gateway in 1532 at the north end of King street 
and corner of Downing street, over which he had a passage from Whitehall palace 
into the park. The park was much improved in the reign of Charles II., and it nas 
been since that time a favorite resort ; but it did not assume its present picturesque 
appearance till 1828, when Mr. Nash, the designer of Regent's park, converted it 
from being a formal and almost swampy meadow into a beautiful and luxuriant- 
looking garden. 

St. James's park received its name from being connected with the palace of St. 
James, which Henry VIII. built on the site of St. James's hospital. Hyde park is 
so called, from the ground having formed a chief portion of the manor of Hyde, be- 
longing to Westminster abbey. This park comprises nearly 400 acres. On its 
western side are Kensington gardens, attached to the palace. Kensington palace 
was purchased by William III., whose queen took much pleasure in improving the 
gardens. They were, however, laid out in their present form by Queen Caroline, 
the wife of George II. The gardens are about three miles and a half in circum- 
ference, and contain a number of magnificent trees. On fine evenings — especially 
Sunday evenings — in spring and summer, they are thronged with visiters. 

Regent's park was formed in 1814. The ground was the property of the crown, 
and was let to various persons — but the leases having expired, the property was con- 
verted into its present handsome and ornamental form, from the designs of Mr. 
Nash. The name, as the reader is doubtless aware, was given in compliment to 
George IV., then prince regent. The park is circular, and comprises about 450 
acres. It contains a sheet of water ; several handsome villas have been built in its 
interior ; and round it is a spacious drive, or road, the exterior side of which is occu- 
pied by a number of fine terraces, or ranges of building, highly ornamented, some 
with colonnades and pillars, and others with allegorical groups and figures. As 
mentioned formerly, the Zoological gardens occupy a portion of the park. 



456 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 




LONDON. 



457 




Entrance Arch of the New Palace, St. James's Park. 

Si. James's park, the smallest of the London parks, is certainly the prettiest. It is 
bounded on the east by the parade at the back of the Horse Guards (p. 353), and at 
its western extremity is the new palace, recently converted into a royal residence by 
her present majesty. On the southern and northern sides are the Bird-cage walk and 
the Mall, the latter a fine avenue, planted with trees. An iron railing separates the 
Green park from St. James's. Hemmed in, as St. James's park is, by buildings on 
every side, the sheet of water, shrubbery, and trees, afford in summer very fine con- 
trasts — a delightful landscape in the heart of a city. 

In 1814, St. James's, the Green park, and Hyde park were made the scene of re- 
joicings and illuminations — a grand jubilee being held in commemoration of various 
events, the close of the war, the centenary of the accession of the house of Bruns- 
wick, the anniversary of the battle of the Nile, &c. On this occasion half-a-guinea 
was charged for admission into the enclosed portion of St. James's park ; it had all 
the appearance of Vauxhall on a full night. The Green park and Hyde park were 
thrown open to the people. The amusements consisted of a mimic sea-fight on the 
piece of water called the Serpentine, in Hyde park ; boat-races on the canal in St. 
James's (the park had not then been metamorphosed by Mr. Nash), with booths, 
bridges, a pagoda, a fortress which was to be turned into a temple of Concord, fire- 
works, illuminations, a balloon ascent, &c. The pagoda was accidently burnt in the 
course of the night, but this would rather have heightened instead of marring the 
enjoyment of the people, had it not been for the deaths of two persons by the fire. 
In Hyde park the booths, shows, gaming-tables, printing-presses, &c, remained for 
upward of a week afterward, nor would the owners abandon the fair, till turned 
out by the magistrates and police. 



458 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

FUNERALS AND CEMETERIES. 

The modes in which funerals are conducted in different parts of the United King, 
dom are, to a certain extent, indicative of provincial characteristics. An English 
country churchyard may be rude, and its tombstones covered with epitaphs which 
do not display much literary taste or skill ; yet there is something about an English 
funeral, when conducted in the old-fashioned English country manner, calculated, 
from the combination of simplicity and seriousness, to stir the heart. Wordsworth 
has described one: — 

" From out the heart 
Of that profound abyss a solemn voice, 
Or several voices in one solemn sound, 
Was heard, ascending: mournful, deep, and slow 
The cadence, as of psalms — a funeral dirge ! 
We listened, looking down toward the hut, 
But seeing no one : meanwhile from below 
The strain continued, spiritual as before ; 
And now distinctly could I recognise 
These words — ' Shall in the grave thy love be known, 
In death thy faithfulness !' — ' God rest his soul !' 
The wanderer cried, abruptly breaking silence, 
' He is departed, and finds peace at last !' 
This scarcely spoken, and those holy strains 
Not ceasing, forth appeared in view a band 
Of rustic persons, from behind the hut, 
Bearing a coffin in the midst, with which 
They shaped their course along the sloping side 
Of that small valley ; singing as they moved ; 
A sober company and few, the men 
Bareheaded, and all decently attired !" 

A Scotch funeral, like the Scotch character, is quiet, decent, carefully performed, 
and striking, from the uniformity with which the relatives and friends attending are 
clothed, not in cloaks, or with sashes or bands, but in suits of black, with hatbands 
of crape, and strips of cambric turned up on the cuffs of the coat, technically called 
weepers. But to an English mind a Scotch funeral is deficient in impressiveness, 
arising from there being no funeral service performed over the grave. This is in 
some measure obviated by the solicitude which the Scotch of all classes display, in 
securing the presence of a clergyman among the other friends and relatives, and 
who offers up prayers in the apartment where the company are assembled, previous 
to the procession setting out for the churchyard. The Rev. C. Otway, in describing 
a funeral which he witnessed in the churchyard of Glasgow cathedral, says: " The 
funeral was as orderly as the place to which it was tending : the hearse, a sort of 
close panelled ark, all its compartments painted with well executed scriptural 
representations; all the relatives and acquaintances of the deceased following on 
foot, with perfectly new black clothing, large white cuffs, called weepers, to their 
coats ; in solemn line, and by twos or threes, they followed the coffin to the grave, 
and without any service read, or exhortation uttered, the body was consigned to its 
earth ; and while all others in the same silent order returned from the tomb, a few 
of the nearest relatives remained, to cast over the coffin the white riband ornaments 
or cords with which they lowered it into the grave, and to see the clay closed over 
the tenant's tomb. During this decent rite I stood aloof, observing that none but the 
friends of the deceased followed in the procession ; there was no rush of idle stran- 
gers toward the grave." The etiquette of Scotch funerals carefully excludes the 
presence of females, even that of the nearest relatives. 

An Irish country funeral is a remarkable thing. If the deceased has been at all 
known and respected — especially if he has been a clergyman — the concourse that 
precedes and follows the bier both in cars and on horse and foot is immense. The 
stopping and solemn repetition of prayers at cross roads — the deep, slow, modulated 
chant known as the Irish cry or ululu — the long sweeping procession, men, women, 
and children, in every kind of garb — all strike the mind of the Englishman or the 



LONDON. 



459 




460 DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 

Scotchman, as something wild and singular, yet imposing. But a funeral in such a 
city as Dublin is very different. Among the upper classes, it is too frequently a cold 
ceremony — a string of carriages following the coffin to the grave. Among the lower 
classes again, it is too frequently a scene offensive to one's notions of propriety, for 
whiskey having been freely distributed, many of the attendants manifest that they 
have not less freely used it ; but there has been a considerable improvement of late 
Vears in this respect. 

Of a funeral in London, what can be said ? — a place with so various a population, 
and where a man may die and his next neighbor know nothing of it, till he remarks 
the mutes with their muffled standards at the door. Notwithstanding the varied 
population, the undertakers, in whose hands is generally placed the management of 
London funerals, contrive to give them a uniformity of appearance. If thirty or 
forty pounds are to be spent on the funeral rites, the undertaker provides a large body 
of attendants, who perform for hire what in country places is done by friends and 
acquaintances from feeling or respect. A pall is borne before the hearse garnished 
with nodding plumes ; the hearse is garnished in a similar manner, and so are the 
horses, which are all of a jet black. Following the hearse is the mourning-coach, 
and two or three other coaches close the procession. But if the funeral is to be con- 
ducted at less expense, and on foot, the undertaker provides cloaks, scarfs, and hat- 
bands, for the relatives and friends who follow the body to the grave ; and when the 
funeral is over, it is his understood duty to precede the chief mourners and such of 
their friends as accompany them from the churchyard to the house whence the de- 
ceased was carried. One of the most mournful, yet one of the most unpicturesque 
scenes to be seen in London, is the return of the mourners, generally the greater 
number females, the undertaker marching with a quiet unconcerned air at their head, 
and they wrapped in heavy ungraceful scarfs and hoods, each holding a handker- 
chief to the face, either from excess of grief, or compliance with the usual habit. 

In 1819, the " Quarterly Review" complained that, " in the metropolis it had be- 
come more difficult to find room for the dead than, the living." The commissioners 
for the improvements in Westminster reported to parliament in 1814, that " St. Mar- 
garet's churchyard could not, consistently with the health of the neighborhood, be 
used much longer as a burying-ground, for that it was with the greatest difficulty a 
vacant place could at any time be found for strangers ; the family graves generally 
would not admit of more than one interment ; and many of them were then too full 
for the reception of any member of the family to which they belonged. There are 
many churchyards in which the soil has been raised several feet above the level of 
the adjoining street, by the continual accumulation of mortal matter ; and there are 
others in which the ground is actually probed with a borer before a grave is opened. 
In these things the most barbarous savages might be shocked at our barbarity. Many 
tons of human bones every year are sent from London to the north, where they are 
crushed in mills contrived for the purpose, and used as manure !" Fifty years ago, 
a French writer said that the expenses of interment in London were greatly in- 
creased by the necessity of digging the graves deep, for the sake of security from 
the surgeons. Ames, the antiquary, from some such feeling, was deposited in the 
churchyard of St. George's in the East, in what is called virgin earth, at the depth 
of eight feet, and in a stone coffin. A fatal accident occurred in Clerkenwell a few 
years ago ; in digging a grave to a greater depth than this, the sides fell in and bu- 
ried the laborer. Yet there has existed a prejudice against new churchyards! No 
person was interred in the cemetery of St. George's, Queen square, till the ground 
was broken for Mr. Nelson, the well-known religious writer ; his character for piety 
reconciled others to the spot. People like to be buried in company, and in good com- 
pany. The dissenters talk with reverent affection of " the funeral honors of Bunhill 
fields." John Bunyan was buried there, and so numerous have been, and still are, 
the dying requests of his admirers to be buried as near as possible to the place of his 
interment, that it is not now possible to obtain a grave near him, the whole sur- 
rounding earth being entirely pre-occupied by dead bodies to a very considerable 
distance. 

Such a state of things is now in rapid course of amelioration. The church- 
yards of London are not so often disturbed as they were. Kensall Green cemetery 
is becoming already a thronged burial-place ; other cemeteries are springing up 
round London ; and if all the projects now on foot be carried out, there will be no 
lack of metropolitan suburban cemeteries. A company, in 1836, obtained an act for 



LONDON 




462 



DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



** establishing cemeteries for the interment of the dead, northward, southward, and 
eastward of the metropolis." 

It is unnecessary to give a detailed description of London churchyards. The two 
great receptacles for the illustrious, the noble, or the wealthy dead, are St. Paul's 
and Westminster abbey. Other cemeteries are, the North London or Highgate ceme- 
tery, the South Metropolitan, at Norwood, Abney Park, at Stoke Newington, New- 
ington Butts, and another at Mile End. In all these there are to be found memorials 
m abundance of names known in literature, art, and science ; of worthy mer- 
ehants and notable citizens, famous in their day and generation ; and of thou- 
sands, perhaps, in their lives each the centre of a circle, yet of whom all that now 
remains is dust below, and a name with a laudatory inscription above. " The num- 
ber of the dead long exceedeth all that shall live. The night of time far surpasseth 
the day, and who knows when was the equinox ? Every hour adds unto that cur- 
rent arithmetic which scarce stands one moment. And since death must be the Lu- 
cina of life, and even pagans could doubt whether thus to live were to die — since 
our longest sun sets at right descensions, and makes but winter arches, and there- 
fore can not be long before we lie down in darkness, and have our light in ashes — • 
since the brother of death daily haunts us with dying mementoes, and time, that grows 
old itself, bids us hope no long duration — diuturnity is a dream and folly of expecta- 
tion." 




Colonnade over the Catacombs at Kenaall Green. 



DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 



CHAPTER XL. 

GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION.— SOIL.— CLIMATE.— PRODUCTI JNS.— 

AGRICULTURE. 

Scotland occupies the northern part of the island of Great Britain, and, divided 
from England by a series of hills and rivers, is externally distinguished from that 
country by many peculiar features. Mountain chains of primitive, or at least early 
rock, and in many instances uncovered by vegetation, form a large portion of the 
surface, giving occasion for many deep inlets of the sea, which peninsulate several 
districts, and render the general outline extremely irregular. Lakes embosomed in 
the hills, and clear, copious, and rapid rivers pouring along the vales, help to com- 
plete that picture which a native poet has expressed in the well-known apos- 
trophe — 

" Land of the mountain and the flood, 
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood." 

The arable ground, which is not above a third of the whole surface, chiefly lies in 
tracts sloping to the seacoast, and in the lower parts of the vales. The less precip- 
itous hilly districts are chiefly occupied as pastoral ground for sheep and cattle. 
Wood, which once covered a large portion of the surface, is now chiefly confined to 
the neighborhood of gentlemen's seats, and to plantations which have been raised 
within the last fifty years for the protection of arable lands from the cold winds. 

The mainland of Scotland is situated between fifty-four degrees thirty-eight min- 
utes and fifty-eight degrees forty minutes north latitude, and one degree forty-seven 
minutes and five degrees forty-five minutes west longitude. It is bounded on the 
east by the German ocean, on the north by the Northern ocean, on the west by the 
Atlantic, and on the south by England. The greatest length is two hundred and 
eighty-four, and the greatest breadth one hundred and forty-seven miles. The entire 
surface, including the islands, contains thirty thousand square miles, or nearly twen- 
ty millions of English statute acres. 

To the north of a southward curving line, stretching between Glasgow and Aber- 
deen, the country is more mountainous than elsewhere, and therefore bears the gen- 
eral appellation of the " Highlands." This is a district full of romantic scenery — 
savage precipitous mountains, lakes, rushing streams, and wild-hanging, natural 
woods. Its population, numbering about 400,000, or a sixth of the entire population 
of the country, is of Celtic (and in a less degree Scandinavian) descent, and exhibits 
many peculiar features in language, dress, and manners, which are, however, rapidly 
Decoming obliterated. The remainder of the country is termed the " Lowlands," as 
containing less ground of an elevated and irregular character, though here also are 
several considerable ranges of mountains, The inhabitants of this district, who are 
more peculiarly entitled to be considered as " the Scotch," are, like the English, a 
Teutonic people, but with probably a mixture of Celtic blood ; and their language 
may be considered as only a variety of English. 



464 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

Connected with Scotland are two large groups of islands, namely : The Northern 
Islands, including the Orkney and Shetland isles, situated in the Northern ocean, 
and the Hebrides, or Western Islands, situated in the Atlantic ocean. 

Scotland and its islands contain thirty-three counties, which may be thus 
classed : — 

Border counties (so called because forming the border adjacent to England). — Ber- 
wick, Roxburg, and Dumfries. 

Southwestern counties. — Kirkcudbright and Wigton. 

Western counties. — Ayr, Lanark, Renfrew, Bute, and Argyle. 

Central counties. — Peebles, Selkirk, Haddington, Edinburgh, Linlithgow, Stirling, 
Dunbarton, Clackmannan, Kinross, Fife, and Perth. 

Northeastern counties. — Forfar (or Angus), Kincardine (or the Mearns), Aberdeen, 
Banff, Elgin (or Moray), and Nairn. 

Northern counties. — Inverness, Ross, Cromarty, Sutherland, Caithness, and 
Orkney. 

For ecclesiastical purposes, the country is divided into parishes (which are also 
civil divisions), presbyteries, and synods. 

The principal rivers are, the Tweed, Annan, Nith, Dee (Kirkcudbright), Ayr, 
Clyde, Beauly, Ness, Findhorn, Spey, Deveron, Ythan, Don, Dee (Aberdeenshire), 
Tay, Forth, Carron, Leith, and Tyne. The Tay is the most copious, and the Spey 
the most rapid. Scarcely any of these rivers are navigable to a considerable distance 
from the sea. 

The mountains of Scotland are generally in groups or ranges. The Highlands 
may be considered as one great cluster of hills ; but those bordering on the Lowlands, 
and extending between Stirlingshire and Aberdeenshire, are more particularly distin- 
guished as the Grampian mountains. The other principal ranges are the Sidlaws, 
in Forfarshire ; the Campsie hills, in Stirlingshire ; the Pentlands, in Edingburgh- 
shire ; the Lammermoors, extending between Berwick and Haddington shires ; the 
Cheviot hills, on the Border; and a great range, of no general name, extending 
throughout the counties of Selkirk, Peebles, Dumfries, Lanark, Ayr, and'Kirkcud- 
bright. The most noted of the Highland mountains are Ben Nevis (4,370 feet, being 
the highest in the United Kingdom), Ben Mac Dhui (4,327), Cairngorm (4,095), Ben 
More (3,870), Ben Wyvis (3,720), and Ben Lomond (3,262). The highest of the 
Pentland range is Carnethy (1,880). Among the southern hills, few exceed 2,500 
feet. 

In the Highlands, the rocks are generally of the primary kind — granite, gneiss, 
mica-slate, &c. ; the granite generally rising into lofty peaks, on which, in many in- 
stances, gneiss and other non-fossiliferous rocks abut or rest. In the Lowlands, the 
rocks are generally of the transition kind (grawacke, &c), covered in many parts 
with coal-measures, trap, and red sandstone. Rocks superior to the red sandstone 
occur only in a few detached places, and in very small quantity. 

The coal-field of Scotland extends with slight interruptions, across the central part 
of Scotland, from the eastern extremity of Fife to Girvan in Ayrshire ; the principal 
beds being near Dysart and Alloa, in the vale of the Esk near Edinburgh, near the 
line of the Forth and Clyde canal, at Paisley in Renfrewshire, and at Dairy, Kilmar- 
nock, and Girvan, in Ayrshire. The Scottish coal is chiefly of a hard and lumpy 
kind, calculated to burn briskly, and therefore well adapted for manufacturing as well 
as for domestic purpose's. 

Granite is dug in the neighborhood of Aberdeen, and at Kirkcudbright, for build- 
ing purposes. The city of Aberdeen itself is chiefly constructed of it; and great 
quantities of it are transported to London, Liverpool, and other places, to be employed 
in building bridges, docks, and other structures, in which unusual durability is re- 
quired. Slates of excellent quality for roofing are quarried at Easdale and Ballahu- 
lish, in Argylshire, and in other places. Sandstone slabs for paving are quarried in 
Caithness, and at Arbroath, in Forfarshire. A fine kind of sandstone is dug in many 
places, and is the primary cause of the architectural elegance of many of the public 
and private buildings in the principal towns. Owing to the abundance of both sand- 
stone and trap, both of which are excellently adapted for building, little brick is used 
in Scotland. 

The chief metals worked in Scotland are lead and iron. Lead is extensively 
wrought in the hills near the junction of Lanark and Dumfries shires, and silver was 
formerly obtained in considerable quantities in the same district. Iron has latterly 



GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION.— SOIL.— CLIMATE, &c. 465 

been worked on a great scale in the northern district of Lanarkshire, and in the 
tiounties of Renfrew and Ayr. Agates, topazes, cornelians, and some other precious 
stones, are found in the highlands of Aberdeenshire. Mineral waters, useful for va- 
rious maladies, exist at Dunse, Moffat, Innerleithen, Airlhrey, Bridge of Earn, Peter- 
head, and Strathpeffer. 

The soil of Scotland is of an extremely diversified character. On the comparatively 
level tracts, much is composed of loam resting on the great clay bed, or diluvium, or 
of alluvial clay washed down from the hills. Much level as well as hilly ground is 
also covered by peat bog, the dissolved forests of ancient times. On the trap hills, a 
light and useful soil, composed of the material below, is generally found. A consid- 
erable quantity of the arable soil throughout, being composed of reclaimed bog, con- 
tains a peaty material. Out of the thiny thousand square miles comprehended in 
Scotland, about thirteen thousand are totally incapable of improvement, nine thou- 
sand are wastes believed to be capable of improvement, and the remainder are pretty 
equally divided between arable and pasture land. 

The climate, as compared with that of England, is cold, cloudy, and wet ; yet the 
temperature is not liable to such great extremes as that of either England or France, 
seldom falling below twenty-five degrees of Fahrenheit, or rising above sixty-five, 
the annual average being from forty-five degrees to forty-seven. The summer is un- 
certain, and often comprehends many consecutive weeks of ungenial weather ; but, 
on the other hand^the winters are rarely severe, and often include many agreeable 
days and even weeks. The backwardness of spring is perhaps the worst feature of 
the meteorological character of the country. 

The country, as already mentioned, was originally covered in great part by wood ; 
and this feature is believed to have been expressed in its ancient name, Caledonia 
(choille dun, Gaelic, a wooded hilly country). The natural wood has been allowed 
in the course of ages to go into decay, in all except in a few remote districts, of 
which we may particularize the high country at the junction of Aberdeen, Banff, 
Moray, and Inverness shires. In the last century Scotland had become nearly bare 
of wood, the only patches being around gentlemen's seats. Within the last fifty 
years this state of things has been greatly changed. Extensive plantations have 
been formed in most districts, as a protection to the cultivated lands. Those of the 
duke of Athole, in Perthshire, are remarkable, above all, for the vast territory which 
they occupy. Scottish plantations consist chiefly of larch and fir ; but the country 
also produces oak, ash, and elm, in great abundance. It is calculated that about a 
million of acres in Scotland are now under wood. 

Scotland formerly abounded in wild animals, particularly the wild boar, the wild 
ox, and the wolf. The wild boar has been for many ages extinct ; and the wolf has 
been so since the latter part of the seventeenth century. Of the primitive white wild 
cattle of the country, there is now only a specimen herd, preserved from curiosity in 
the parks near Hamilton palace. Birds of prey, the eagle, falcon, and owl, are still 
found in the Highlands and^Vestern Islands, where also deer and game birds are 
abundant. Aquatic birds haunt the more precipitous shores in vast quantities. Hares 
and rabbits everywhere abound, and foxes are not scarce. The rivers of Scotland 
produce salmon and trout, and herrings, haddocks, cod, and flounders, exist in great 
abundance in the neighboring seas. 

Husbandry was in a very backward state in Scotland till the middle of the eigh- 
teenth century. The Highlands produced herds of the native small black cattle ; 
in the low countries, the higher grounds were occupied, as now, by flocks of sheep ; 
but there was little arable land, and that little was ill cultivated and comparatively 
unproductive. Since then, under the care of a set of patriotic and enlightened in- 
dividuals, Scotland may be said to have been one great experimental farm for the 
advancement of husbandry in all its forms. The rearing of turnips for the winter 
support of cattle has been in itself a most remarkable improvement. A proper 
rotation of crops has been studied, and has been attended with the best effects. 
Old, cumbrous, and expensive modes of tillage have been banished, and the light 
plough and cart substituted in their place. Draining has improved not only the soil 
but the climate. Lime, and latterly bone manure, have been extensively introduced. 
The productiveness of the soil has consequently increased in an immense ratio. 
Oats, a hardy plant, calculated for most soils and climates, is still the chief grain 
raised in Scotland, and its meal is still the principal food of the peasantry, of work- 
ing people in general, and of the children of all classes of the community: it is said 



466 



DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 




THE PEOPLE— THEIR CHARACTER.— POPULATION. 467 

to cover 1,260,000 acres, or a fourth of the whole in cultivation. Barley, which 
forms a conspicuous article in the food of the common people, and is also used 
in distillation, occupies 280,000 acres. Wheat is believed to occupy only about 
140,000 acres ? yet it is remarkable that this grain is exported in considerable quan- 
tity from Scotland, while the above two grains are in not less quantity imported 
from England and Ireland, testifying that the ancient frugal habits of the people 
with respect to food change less rapidly than the improvement of the soil advances. 
Potatoes are extensively raised in open fields in Scotland, and now constitute an im- 
portant article of food to the working classes. The southern hills continue as for- 
merly to be covered by extensive flocks, and sheep-farming has also been extensively 
introduced in the Highlands. The latter change has necessarily caused the extinc- 
tion of a kind of cottier system, which came down from the old days of feudalism; 
yet it is believed that black cattle are as extensively reared in the Highlands as 
ever ; and it is certain that the population, so far from being diminished by the sup- 
pression of small farms, increased about one seventh during the first thirty years of 
the present century. 



CHAPTER XL1. 
THE PEOPLE— THEIR CHARACTER.— PROGRESS OF POPULATION. 

The Scotch, as already mentioned, are, like the English, a Teutonic people, with 
only a few distinctive varieties of character, perhaps partly original, and partly the 
effect of local and political circumstances. It may be remarked, that, though in 
the main Teutonic, the Scotch do not descend from the same branch of that race aa 
the English. From language and other circumstances, it appears likely that the 
original colonizers of North Britain were from Scandinavia, Denmark, and Zealand, 

The Scotch (taking as usual the general characteristics of the people) may be 
described as a tall, large-boned, and muscular race. Even the women appear to a 
southern eye remarkable for the robustness of their figures, though this is a point 
which the natives are of course apt to overlook or be unconscious of. The Scotch 
figure is not so round and soft as the English. The face, in particular, is long and 
angular, with broad cheek bones. The cranium is also said to be somewhat larger-, 
and tending more to a lengthy shape, than that of the English. A fair complexion 
and light color of hair abound in Scotland, though there are also many instances oC 
every other variety of tint. 

The Scottish character exhibits a considerable share of both energy and per- 
severance. It may safely be said, that a country with so many physical disad- 
vantages could never have been brought into such a condition as respects rural 
husbandry, nor, with all the advantage of the English connexion, been made so 
prosperous a seat of both manufactures and comtr rce, if the people had not been 
gifted in a high degree with those qualities. A disposition to a frugal and careful 
use of means is also abundantly conspicuous in the Scotch. The poorest poor, at 
least in rural districts, are in few instances of such improvident habits, as to exhibit 
that destitution of furniture, clothing, and tolerable house accommodation, which 
meets the eye almost everywhere in Ireland. Caution, foresight, and reflection, 
may be said to enter largely into the Scottish character. Under the influence of 
these qualities, they arc slow and^sometimes cold in speech, and are therefore apt 
to appear as deficient in frankness and generosity. These, however, are in a great 
measure only appearances. That perfervidum ingenium, or fiery genius, attributed 
to them by Buchanan, is still a deep-seated characteristic of the people. On sub- 
jects which they regard as important, they sometimes manifest this excitability in 
"a" very striking manner ; as, for instance, in their almost universal rising against 
Charles I. in defence of their favorite modes of worship and ecclesiastical polity. 
Generous affections, in which, as compared with the English, the Scotch might 
appear deficient, perhaps only take, in their case, somewhat different directions. 
They cherish, more than most people, a feeling of attachment for their native 



468 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

country, and even the particular district and spot of their birth, for their remote as 
well as immediate kindred, and for everything which reminds them of what is 
honorable in the doings of those who went before them. A strong sense of religion 
is a conspicuous feature -in the Scottish national character ; clear, however, from all 
regard to external and what appear to them unimportant things connected with it. 
There is no country where a more decent attention is paid to the sabbath than in 
Scotland. It may at the same time be remarked, that their religion is more doc- 
trinal than directly venerative or sentimental — a peculiarity which may be traced 
in the plainness of their forms of worship, as either its cause or its effect. There 
is a considerable tendency in the Scottish intellect to argumentative reasoning, and 
this shows itself in the service in their churches as well as in their philosophical 
literature. The domestic virtues flourish in much the same degree in Scotland as 
in England ; but the humbler classes in North Britain are not nearly so remarkable 
for cleanliness as the lower English, and they have suffered of late years from the 
extensive use of ardent spirits. The rural laboring classes are remarkable for their 
steady industry and decent conduct ; and it is only, perhaps, among the lower orders 
in large towns, that much moral deterioration has taken place. For centuries, the 
wandering disposition of the Scotch has been remarkable. An immense number of 
young persons every year leave their native country to push their fortune in the 
busier English cities, in public employment in India, in the colonies, or in other 
parts of the world. These persons have generally a tolerable education in propor- 
tion to their rank and prospects ; and being found possessed of steadiness, fidelity, 
and perseverance, they rarely fail to improve their circumstances. We are here 
reminded of the advantage which Scotland has long enjoyed in the possession of 
a universally-diffused means of elementary instruction. This, though in some re- 
spects over-estimated, has at least insured that nearly every person reared in Scot- 
land is not without some tincture of literature. 

The population of Scotland at the end of the seventeenth century, did not 
probably exceed a million. In 1755, when an attempt was first made to ascertain 
it, it appears to have been about one million two hundred and sixty-five thousand 
three hundred and eighty. From that time the country made a start in manufac- 
turing and commercial prosperity, as well as in improved modes of rural hus- 
bandry, and the population experienced accordingly a considerable increase, though 
not so great in proportion as the increase of wealth. The census, at different 
periods, since 1801, inclusive, gives the following results: — 

1801, - - - 1,599,068 I 1821, - - - 2,093,456 
1811, - - - 1,805,688 | 1831, - - - 2,365,114 

The increase has taken place chiefly in large towns, a result of the progress of 
manufactures and commerce. It was ascertained that, of the total families in 1821, 
130,679 were employed in agriculture, and 190,264 in trade, manufactures, and 
handicrafts ; leaving a remainder of 126,997 subsisting otherwise. Since then, the 
proportion of the second class has probably experienced a large increase. The 
progress of population in Scotland has, according to Mr. McCulloch, " been less 
than its progress during the same period in England and Ireland ; while there are 
good grounds for thinking that the wealth of Scotland has increased more rapidly 
than that of either of these two countries. This desirable result," our author adds, 
" seems to have been owing principally to the consolidation of small farms in the 
low country, the introduction of sheep-farming into the Highlands, and the ob- 
stacles imposed, by the law of Scotland as to leases and the operation of the poor- 
laws, against the subdivision of land and the building of superfluous cottages. 
These circumstances, combined with the moral and religious habits of the people, 
and the general diffusion of education, have made marriages be deferred to a later 
period than in other parts of the empire, and have also led to a very extensive 
emigration. In consequence, the Scotch have advanced more rapidly than the 
English or Irish in wealth, and in the command of the necessaries and conveniences 
of life. Their progress in this respect has, indeed, been quite astouishing The 
habits, diet, dress, and other accommodations of the people, have been signally im- 
proved." 

It has been shown, on the other hand, that the comforts of the people have not 
everywhere improved in the ratio of the general advance of wealth. That operation 
of the limited poor-laws of Scotland which Mr. M'Culloch eulogises, has been shown, 



REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY.— NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 46y 

by Professor Alison, of Edinburgh, to send annually great numbers of superannuated 
laborers and others into the large towns, where they form a dense population, living 
in semi-destitution, and in other circumstances unfavorable to health, and are thus 
exposed to fevers and other contagious maladies, which periodically sweep them 
off in large numbers. It is contended by the same writer, that the low condition in 
which the scanty provision for pauperism compels many to live, gives them reck- 
less" habits, and tends materially to increase a mean, squalid, and dangerous popula- 
tion. There is certainly much truth in these views. The sanitory condition of 
Glasgow forms a startling illustration of them. During five years, from 1835 to 
1839 inclusive, the number of fever cases treated at the public expense in that city 
was 55,949, or about 11,000 per annum, and the deaths in the same period were 
4,788. The population of Glasgow has risen from 151,540 in 1822, to 272,000 in 
1840, and in that period the rate of mortality has been rapidly advancing. In 1822, 
the mortality was 3,408, or one in about 44£ of the population ; in 1825, it was 4,571, 
or as one in about 36^. In 1828, the mortality increased to 5,534, which, at the 
then amount of the popula lion, was one in 33 — a proportion alarmingly high. Since 
then, however, the inhabitants of this great city have suffered still more severely. 
In the year of the Asiatic cholera, 1832, when the population was 209,230, the 
mortality reached the enormous amount of 9,654, or one in about 21| ; and again, in 
a year of severe fever (1837), when the population was estimated at 253,000, it 
reached 10,270, or one in about 24|. It would appear as if, after such disastrous 
periods, the mortality becomes for some time lessened. After 1832, it rebounded 
to one in 36, and after 1837 to one in 37, or thereabouts. Probably this is in some 
measure owing to the effect of severe epidemics in carrying off so many of the least 
healthy of the people. It is to be remarked, that in these results no account 
is taken of still-born children, who, in the eighteen years before 1840, amounted to 
8,763. The proportion of the still-born is startlingly high, being, in 1830, 471 
out of 6,868, or about a fourteenth. In this fact alone, we can not help thinking 
we behold a strong proof of the amount of misery and unfavorable modes of living 
prevailing in Glasgow. 

The average annual mortality in Glasgow was, for the period between 1822 and 
1830, both inclusive, one in 38£ ; for the period between 1831 and 1839, also both 
inclusive, one in nearly 32. At the latter date, if it were habitual, Glasgow would 
stand forth as one of the cities most fatal to human life in Europe. Another fact is 
most remarkable, that, of the deaths during these eighteen years, 43 per cent., or 
not much short of the one half, are of children under Jive years of age, and 18 per 
cent, under one year of age. It further appears, from minute evidence, that in 
the years of unusually great mortality, there is a larger proportion of deaths among 
the adult population, showing how fatal the epidemics are to heads of families. 
From one fourth to one fifth of the funerals in Glasgow are at the public expense 
an impressive fact, seeing how it connects poverty with mortality. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY.— NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 

The comparatively irregular surface of Scotland, or, as a geologist would remark, 
its being more generally formed of the primitive and early rocks, has caused the ex- 
istence of much picturesque and romantic scenery, the attractions of which have 
Deen greatly heightened of late years by the works of the native poets and novelists, 
particularly Sir Walter Scott. The Highlands may be said to form one wide tract 
of such scenery, though some parts are considerably more beautiful than others. 
Fine scenery in Scotland generally lies along the beds of lakes or the vales of rivers. 
The chief tracts are the following : — 

LOWER PERTHSHIRE. 

The Trosachs and Loch Katrine. — This is a beautiful district, situated at the 
distance of little more than twenty-five miles from Stirling, and remarkable as the 



470 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

scenery of Scott's Lady of the Lake. It may be said to commence at the large Low- 
land village of Callander, which is only sixteen miles from Stirling. This village 
lies in the bosom of the valley of the Teith, with lofty hills on all sides except 
the east, and apparently occupying the last patch of level ground before the travel- 
ler enters the Highlands. The surrounding: scenery is worthy of being explored ; two 
places, in particular, should be visited. The first is the Fall of Bracklin, situated 
among the hills, at the distance of a mile and a half in a northeasterly direction 
from the village. It consists of a series of cascades formed by the impetuous rush- 
fug of a mountain stream, termed the Keltie, down a rugged rocky ravine. Each 
cascade is from eight to ten feet in depth, and altogether, the falls may measure up- 
ward of a hundred feet, before they finally settle in a profound receptacle at the bot- 
tom. Above the chasm there is thrown a rustic foot-bridge, from which the view 
of the falls, when the water is large, is particularly grand. This spot is worthy of 
being visited by geologists, on account of the singular masses of rifted rock over and 
among which the water impetuously dashes. 

The other place to which we would draw attention is the Pass of Leny. This is 
a narrow opening, about a mile to the northwest of the village, which affords ac- 
cess, as its name imports, from the low country into the wild recesses of the High- 
lands. While the vale of the Teith continues toward the west, the road to the pass 
of Leny strikes off in a northwesterly direction. Skirted with waving woods, and 
bound in by lofty mountains, this is a scene of great sublimity. A rapid river, 
which issues from the mountain lake denominated Ljoch Lubnaig, hurries through 
the narrow vale over a series of little cascades, yielding a music harsh and wild, in 
strict keeping with the ruggedness of the scene. The road leads along the brink of 
Loch Lubnaig, to the small parish village of Balquidder, where, in the churchyard, 
the grave of the celebrated freebooter Rob Roy is still pointed out. 

The road toward the Trosachs pursues a tortuous line along the base of a mount- 
ain range skirting the north side of the valley. In the bottom of the vale lie in 
succession two long stripes of water, or lakes, called Loch Vennachar and Loch 
Achray. Immediately before approaching the eastern extremity of the last of these 
lakes, which is by much the smallest, a road leads off to the right, into the vale of 
Glenfinlas — a tract of ten miles in extent, formerly a royal hunting forest, destitute 
of the smallest symptom of habitation or of cultivation, and which any one who 
wishes to have a complete idea of an Ossianic desert, in all its sterile and lonely 
wildness, may be recommended to traverse. The bridge crossing the stream 
which descends from this vale, is called the Bridge of Turk, on account of a wild 
boar, which had done much mischief in the neighborhood, having been slain at the 
place in times long bygone. 

On coming to the head of Loch Achray, you approach the Trosachs. At this 
point is situated an inn, having a strange Gaelic name, sounding something like 
Ardkencrockran. This is the last human habitation on the route, and here travel- 
lers usually quit their vehicles in order to walk the remainder of the distance ; the 
road, however, will accommodate a chaise to the verge of Loch Katrine. The Tro- 
sachs is simply a concluding portion of the vale, about a mile in extent, and adjoin- 
ing to the bottom of Loch Katrine. From the tumultuous confusion of little rocky 
rminences, of all the most fantastic and extraordinary forms, which lie throughout 
the bottom of the vale, and are everywhere shagged with trees and shrubs, nature 
here wears an aspect of roughness and wildness, of tangled and inextricable holi- 
ness, totally unexampled. The valley being contracted, hills, moreover, rise on 
each side to a great height, which, being entirely covered by birches, hazels, oaks, 
hawthorns, and mountain ashes, contribute greatly to the general effect. The 
meaning of the word trosach in some measure describes the scene — a rough or bris- 
tled piece of territory. The author of the Lady of the Lake has described it as " a 
wildering scene of mountains, rocks, and woods, thrown together in disorderly 
groups." 

At the termination of the Trosachs, Loch Katrine commences: it measures about 
ten miles in length, and is justly reckoned one of the most beautiful in Scotland. Its 
principal charm consists in the singular rugged wildness of its mountainous sides, 
and its pretty rocket islets, rising to a considerable height out of the water, and tufted 
over with trees and shrubs. Near the eastern extremity of the lake, there is precisely 
such an island as that which is described in the poem as the residence of the outlawed 
Douglas and his family. To fulfil the wishes of the imagination — if such a phTase 



REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY.— NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 471 







472 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

may be used — Lady Willoughby D'Eresby, the proprietrix of the ground, has erected 
upon the island a sort of tower or cottage, such as that which the said family oc- 
cupied ; and he must be a traveller of more than ordinary churlishness who could 
refrain from indulging in the pleasing deception thus created. 

The view of the lake, on approaching it on the east, is rather confined, but from 
the top of the rocky and woody mount above, the prospect is more extensive, and of 
that singular beauty which the author of the Lady of the Lake has described in the 
following passage : — 

■" Gleaming with the setting sun, 



One burnished sheet of living gold, 

Loch Katrine lay beneath him rolled, 

In all her length far-winding lay. 

With promontory, creek, and bay, 

And islands that, empurpled bright, 

Floated amid the livelier light, 

And mountains that like giants stand, 

To sentinel enchanted land.' 

High on the south, huge Ben-venue 

Down on the lake its masses threw — 

Crags, knolls, and mounds, confusedly hurled, 

The fragments of an earlier world ; 

A wildering forest feathered o'er, 

His ruined sides and summit hoar ; 

While on the north, through middle air, 

Ben-an heaved high his forehead bare." 

The beautiful scenery connected with Loch Earn, may be said to commence at 
Comrie, a village about twenty miles to the west of Perth, and remarkable as the 
place of all others in the United Kingdom where earthquakes take place most fre- 
quently. The vale of the Earn is here, and even lower down, full of natural and 
acquired beauty. Passing upward toward the lake, the scenery becomes more in- 
teresting at every step. At that part of the vale which adjoins to the bottom of the 
lake, its character is similar to that of the Trosachs, at the corresponding extremity 
of Loch Katrine, though less minutely rugged and picturesque. Passing through 
the extensive grove at the bottom of the valley, now within sight and hearing of the 
ever-glancing and ever-murmuring Earn, and then beyond both, as the road ap- 
proaches and recedes from the water-side, the traveller gets frequent broken glimpses 
of the grand and wildly-serrated tops of the neighboring mountains, whose sides present 
a strange piebald mixture, by no means deficient in effect, of alternate bare crag and 
incumbent verdure — a beautiful confusion, indeed, of gray and green — relieved occa- 
sionally by the darker branches of the birch and weeping-ash. 

Loch Earn extends nine miles in length, and generally about one mile in breadth. 
It is thus described by Dr. M'Culloch : " Limited as are the dimensions of Loch Earn, 
it is exceeded in beauty by few of our lakes, as far as it is possible for many beauties 
to exist in so small a space. I will not say that it presents a great number of distinct 
landscapes adapted for the pencil; but such as it does possess, are remarkable for 
their consistency of character, and for a combination of sweetness and simplicity, 
with a grandeur of manner, scarcely to be expected within such narrow bounds. 
Its style is that of a lake of far greater dimensions ; the hills which bound it being 
lofty, and bold, and rugged, with a variety of character not found in many of even far 
greater magnitude and extent. It is a miniature and model of scenery that might 
well occupy ten times the space. Yet the eye does not feel this. There is nothing 
trifling or small in the details ; nothing to diminish its grandeur of style, and tell us 
we are contemplating a reduced copy. On the contrary, there is a perpetual contest 
between our impressions and our reasonings : we know that a few short miles com- 
prehend the whole, and yet we feel as if it were a landscape^of many miles — a lake 
to be ranked among those of first order and dimensions. While its mountains thus 
rise in majestic simplicity to the sky, terminating in bold, and various, and rocky 
outlines, the surfaces of the declivities are equally bold and various; enriched with 
precipices and masses of protruding rock, with deep hollows and ravines, and with 
the courses of innumerable torrents which pour from above, and, as they descend, 
become skirted with trees till they lose themselves in the waters of the lake. Wild 
woods also ascend along their surface, in all that irregularity of distribution so pe- 
culiar to these rocky mountains ; less solid and continuous than at Loch Lomond; 
less scattered and romantic than at Loch Katrine, but, from these very causes, aiding 



REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY.— NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 473 




474 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

to confer upon Loch Earn a character entirely its own." In passing along Loch Earn, 
it is recommended to go by the road on the south side. The house of Ardvoirdjien 
(Stewart, Esq.), occurs about mid-way; its name recals the memory of Stewart of 
Ardvoirdlich, a partisan of Montrose, who killed his friend Lord Kilpont in the 
royalist camp at Collace, September 5, 1644 — the incident on which Scott founded 
his Legend of Montrose. The woody promontories which here project into the 
lake are remarkably beautiful. About a mile and a half from the west end of the 
lake, occur the castle and falls of Edinample, a scene of distinguished loveliness, 
such as people, in the spirit of compliment, say, might give occasion to a volume, 
and which, rather strange to tell, has actually done so. 

The upper extremity of this beautiful lake, where the general merits of the 
scenery may be said in some measure to be altogether condensed and combined, is 
enlivened by the little village and inn of Loch Earn Head. 

MIDDLE PERTHSHIRE. 

The small town of Dunkeld in Middle Perthshire, so celebrated for the fine scenery 
in its neighborhood, is situated on the north bank of the Tay, at the distance of 
fifteen miles from Perth and twenty-four from Kenmore. Nestling beneath steep 
and woody mountains, with a noble river running in front, across which there is an 
elegant bridge, the first view of Dunkeld, in approaching it from the south, is very 
striking. The village consists of two small streets, in which are two excellent inns, 
affording extensive accommodation for the tourists who flock hither in summer. 
At Dunkeld, attention is called to the venerable remains of a cathedral, and the duke 
of Athole's mansion, styled Dunkeld house ; but our present business is with the 
natural scenery. Most of this is in pleasure-grounds connected with the mansion. 

Craig-y-Barns, a lofty hill, wooded to the top, which rises behind the house, is a 
resort of tourists for the sake of the magnificent view which it commands. They 
are also conducted by guides to the scenery of the Bran, which joins the Tay on its 
opposite bank near the village of Inver — the birthplace and usual residence, it may 
be mentioned, of the late Neil Gow, so famous wherever Scottish music is known, 
at once for his performance on the violin and his excellent compositions. Near this 
place the tourist is conducted into a tasteful hermitage or summer-house, named 
Ossian's hall, where he sees before him a picture representing the aged Ossian 
singing to some females the tales " of the days that are past," while his dog, his 
hunting-spear, and bow and arrows, lie at his side. On a sudden, this picture slips 
aside, and discloses to the view of the surprised stranger a splendid cataract, which 
dashes down the rocks immediately opposite to the building, and the waters of which 
are reflected from a range of mirrors disposed around the hall. To use the words of 
Dr. Clarke, " The whole cataract foams at once before you, roaring with the noise 
of thunder. It is hardly possible to conceive a spectacle more striking. If it be ob- 
jected that machinery contrivance of this sort wears too much the appearance of 
scenic representation, I should reply, that as scenic representation I admire it, and 
as the finest specimen of that species of exhibition ; which, doubtless, without the 
aid of such a deception, would have been destitute of half the effect it is now calcu- 
lated to produce. A little below this edifice, a simple but pleasing arch is thrown 
across the narrow chasm of the rocks, through which theriverflows with vast rapidity. 
About a mile higher up the Bran, is the Rumbling bridge, thrown across a chasm of 
granite, about fifteen feet wide. The bed of the river, for several hundred feet above . 
the arch, is copiously charged with massive fragments of rock, over which the river 
foams and roars like the waters at Ivy bridge in Devonshire. Approaching the bridge, 
it precipitates itself with great fury through the chasm, casting a thick cloud of spray 
or vapor high above the bridge, and agitating by its fury even the prodigious masses 
which form the surrounding rocks. Few objects will more amply repay the traveller 
for his trouble of visiting them, than the woody precipices, the long, winding, shady 
groves, the ruins, and cataracts of Dunkeld." 

In the angle formed by the junction of the Bran and Tay rises Craig Vincan, a 
broad shadowy mass of firs, reared against the sky. A neighboring eminence obtaius 
the name of the King's Seat, in consequence of King William the Lion having been 
in the habit of stationing himself upon it, in order to shoot at the droves of deer 
which his attendants caused to pass through the adjacent hollows. It is related that 
Queen Mary also practised the same sport at this place, and on one occasion narrowly 
escaped destruction from an infuriated stag. 



REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY.— NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 475 

Aberfeldy, Kenmore, and Killin. — Tourists frequently proceed from Dunkeld along 
the bank of the Tay, in order to comprehend the tract of scenery here indicated. 
Aberfeldy, a village not in itself remarkable, is celebrated for the fine cataract, form 
ed by a small tributary of the Tay, in its neighborhood, and near the house of 
Moness. The tourist is conducted by a guide along the thickly-wooded banks of 
this rivulet, till, about a mile from the village, he reaches the first of the celebrated 
waterfalls of Moness. A little sub-tributary rill here pours, in a series of cascades, 
down the side of the glen, amid a natural scene of the greatest beauty. A little 
further up the main dell, the rivulet pours along a steep natural staircase, of a hundred 
feet in perpendicular descent, the sides of which rise abruptly and ruggedly, clothed 
with the most beautiful natural plants. This scene is described by Bums in one of 
his songs : — 

" The braes ascend like lofty wa's, 

The foaming stream deep roaring fa's, 

O'eihung wi' fragrant spreading shaws, 
The birks of Aberfehiy 

The hoary cliffs are crowned wi' flowers ; 

White o'er the linn the burnie pours, 

And, rising, weets, wi' misty showers. 
The birks of Aberfeldy." 

At a third cataract, higher up, the pathway crosses the stream, and descends on the 
other side of the dell. Pennant describes the Moness falls as " an epitome of every- 
thing that can be admired in the curiosity of waterfalls." 

A ride of six miles along the Tay brings the traveller to Kenmore, a village of 
famed beauty, situated at the east end of Loch Tay, at the place where the river 
issues from that sheet of water. This is one of the chief stages, or points, in the 
tour of Perthshire, and it is provided, accordingly, with a good inn. Lofty hills 
ascend on each side: on one hand there is a noble lake ; on the other, toward Aber- 
feldy, stretch the splendid grounds around Taymouth castle, the seat of the marquis 
of Breadalbane. This magnificent house — truly worthy of the great chief and land- 
proprietor who owns it — is about a mile to the east of Kenmore, the exterior gate- 
way of the park opening from the street of the village. It is a dark gray castellated 
edifice, of modern aspect, situated in the low ground beside the river, with a beautiful 
backing of woody hills rising behind it. This princely place and its adjuncts made 
a deep impression on the mind of Burns, who visited it in 1787, and thus descri- 
bed it : — 

" The outstretching lake, embosomed 'mong the hills, 
The eye with wonder and amazement fills; 
The Tay, meandering sweet, in infant pride ; 
The palace rising by his verdant side ; 
The lawns, wood-fringed, in nature's native taste ; 
The hillocks dropped in nature's careless haste ; 
The arches striding o'er the new born stream ; 
The village glittering in the noon tide beam." 

A guide is required to introduce a stranger to all the beauties of the Taymouth Park, 
among which the most remarkable is the Berceau Walk, a grand avenue of four hun- 
dred and fifty yards in length, which reminds one of some lofty cathedral, " casting 
a dim religious light." 

Loch Tay is a fine sheet of water, fifteen miles in length, lying between two ranges 
of hills. In the centre of the northwest side rises Ben Lawers, to the height of 4,015 
feet. An island near Kenmore formerly contained a priory of Augusiines, founded 
by Alexander I., in the year 1122. Here his queen, Sybilla, daughter of Henry I., of 
England, was buried. Loch Tay is remarkable, like some other Scottish lakes, for 
having been, on several occasions, greatly agitated at the moment of the occurrence 
of earthquakes in distant parts of the world. It is from fifteen to a hundred fathoms 
deep. There is a road on each side to Killin, the distance being sixteen miles. Both 
abound alike in fine scenery, though by pursuing that along the south side a view 
will be obtained of the lofty Ben Lawers, which will scarcely be seen in such per- 
fection on the opposite side. The mixture of wood, rdck, and cultivated field, which 
the traveller finds skirting Loch Tay, will surprise him with its happy effect. The 
old system of minute farms prevails here in all its pristine vigor, and a prodigious 
number of rude and picturesque cottages necessarily enter into the composition of the 
landscape. 



476 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

Killin, a straggling little village, situated in the low vale at the head of the loch, 
is celebrated for the varied beauty of its scenery. Here two rivers, the Dochart and 
the Lochy, come down out of different glens, and join their waters with each other 
and with the lake. The vale of the latter is peculiarly beautiful ; but that of the 
Dochart, extending up to Tyndrum, upon the great west road, is only stern and wild. 
On arriving at the town, the Dochart breaks over a strange expanse of table rock in 
a thousand little cascades, so that the traveller, who crosses a bridge just at the 
place, is bewildered, as he looks around, with the flashing and sparkling water which 
everywhere meets his eye. 

"Killin," says Dr. M'Culloch, "is the most extraordinary collection of extraordi- 
nary scenery in Scotland, unlike everything else in the country, and perhaps on earth, 
and a perfect picture-gallery in itself, since you can not move three yards without 
meeting a new landscape. A busy artist might here draw a month, and not exhaust 
it. It is, indeed, scarcely possible to conceive so many distinct and marked objects 
collected within so small a space, and all so adapted to each other as always to pre- 
serve one character, and, at the same time, to produce so endless a number of distinct 
and beautiful landscapes. To find, however, all that Killin has to give of this na- 
ture, it is necessary to pry about into corners, like a cat, as the separate scenes are 
produced by very slight changes of position, and are often found in very unexpected 
places. Fir-trees, rocks, torrents, mills, bridges, houses — these produce the great 
bulk of the middle landscape, under endless combinations, while the distances more 
constantly are found in the surrounding hills, in the varied woods, in the bright ex- 
panse of the lake, and the minute ornaments of the distant valley, in the rocky and 
bold summit of Craig Cailleach, and in the lofty vision of Ben Lawers, which towers 
like a huge giant to the clouds, the monarch of the scene." 

On the northwest shore of Loch Tay, near Killin, stands (he mouldering ruin of 
Finlarig castle, built by Sir Colin Campbell, of Glenurchy, between 1513 and 1523, 
and the seat of the family before their removal to Balloch or Taymouth. " We ob- 
serve, also," says a traveller, writing in 1802, "situated on a plain at the west end 
of the lake, a neat, but small mansion (Kinnel), belonging to Mr. M'Nab, the chief- 
tain of that name. The family burial ground, Inish-Mhui, close by the house, i3 
pointed out to the stranger as a place of singular beauty. It undoubtedly is such, 
and is highly calculated to raise ideas of tenderness and sorrow ; as an insulated 
grove of tall pines, whose solemn aspect and deep silence are in fine harmony with 
the waters around it, the blue expanse of the lake calm and unruffled, and the sub- 
lime height of the mountains that rise from its margin, are objects well suited to cor- 
respond with the belief that Fingal sleeps here in the dust." 

DUNBARTONSHIRE. 

A tract of beautiful scenery extends through Dunbartonshire, from the banks of 
the Clyde along those of the Leven, and including the magnificent Loch Lomond, 
the largest and probably most beautiful of our British lakes. 

In passing down the Clyde, after having proceeded about fifteen miles from Glas- 
gow, the traveller finds himself opposite to a very lofty dark-colored rock, rising 
from the level sands, almost close to the right bank of the river. This is the castle 
of Dunbarton. It appears to have been a military fortress almost from the first occu- 
pation of this part of the island. Under the name of Arcluid, or Alcluid (that is, the 
place on the Clyde), it is said to have been the capital, first, of a Caledonian, and af- 
terward of a British or Welsh kingdom, which was in early times established in this 
district. Its modern name, Dunbarton, there can be little doubt, is merely a corrup- 
tion of Dunbritton, that is, the town of the Britons. Bede, who flourished in the be- 
ginning of the eighth century, speaks of it as the principal fortress which the Britons 
possessed in his days. When the Saxons extended their conquests to the north, all 
this district of Scotland, as far as to the Frith of Forth, was for a long time a sort 
of disputed territory, and was sometimes in possession of the Saxons, and sometimes 
in that of their northern enemies, the Caledonians or Picts. The Saxon kingdom of 
Bemicia was considered as properly embracing the whole country to the banks of the 
Forth. Dunbarton, however, and probably other strongholds in the same region, 
were captured more than once from their nominal Saxon sovereigns by the more an- 
cient occupants of the island. At last, however, in 756, Dunbarton, after having 
been for some years in the hands of the Picts, was recovered by Edbert, king of 
Northumberland, the garrison being obliged to surrender on account of want of pro- 



REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY-NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 477 




478 



DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 



visions, and it continued for several ages afterward to form a portion of the Saxon or 
English dominions. Some writers have thought it probable that Dunbarton was even 
occupied as a station by the Romans ; and the tourist Pennant is convinced that the 
Roman fleet must have anchored, on one occasion, immediately under the rock. A 
fragment of an old building crowning one of the summits has been conjectured to be 
the remains of a Roman pharos, or lighthouse. The rampart erected by Agricola 
between the Friths of Forth and Clyde, as well as that subsequently raised by Lol- 
lius Urbicus, the lieutenant of Antoninus Pius, nearly in the same direction, termina- 
ted in this neighborhood ; and traces of the latter (popularly known by the name of 
Graham's dyke) are still to be seen not far from the town of Dunbarton. 

The town stands on the left or east bank of the Leven, about three quarters of a 
mile to the north of the castle, which is situated at the confluence of that river with 
the Clyde. On occasion of an unusually high tide, the rock is sometimes quite insu- 
lated ; but in general the ground is dry between it and the town. Dunbarton was 
made a royal burgh by Alexander II., in 1221. The rock itself was wont to be 
looked upon as the key to the western highlands, and as therefore one of the most 
important of the Scottish fortresses. It is, as we have mentioned, of very great 
height; and about half way up it divides and forms two summits, with a large 
chasm or hollow between. In this hollow is a well, about fourteen feet deep, which 
affords a constant supply of water. Dunbarton certainly would not now stand a well- 
conducted assault above a few hours; but it used to be deemed all but inaccessible, 
and therefore impregnable, except by the expedient of starving the garrison. There 
was anciently a track by which it could be ascended from the northern side ; but 
that has been long built up, and the only access to the buildings noAV is from the 
south. Of these buildings, the principal is the governor's house, which is fortified by 
a few cannon. The garrison consists merely of a small number of invalids. 




Gate between the upper and lower parts of Dunbarton Castle. 

The substance of this rock is a basaltic formation of black whinstone, and it is in 
several parts magnetic — a circumstance which is noticed by Buchanan, who sup- 



REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY.— NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 479 

poses, however, that at a particular place a large loadstone is fastened in the rock, 
and has become imperceptibly united with it. Most basaltic formations possess 
magnetic power. 

Passing the town of Dunbarton, the tourist proceeds upward along the vale of the 
Leveri, a scene of singular beauty, filled with thriving villages and elegant mansions. 
The road, at the distance of two miles from the town, passes the old mansion-house 
of Dalquharn, in which, in the year 1721, the author of Roderick Random first saw 
light. Archibald Smollett, the father of the novelist, was the fourth son of Sir 
James Smollett of Bonhill, and, having married against his father's will, was resi- 
ding here, in possession of one of the farms of the family property, at the time of 
the birth of his illustrious child. In a field on the opposite or west side of the road, 
there is an obelisk to the memory of the novelist, erected and inscribed by his cousin- 
german, James Smollett of Bonhill. Immediately beyond, the road passes through 
the populous modern village of Renton, occupied by persons engaged in the neigh- 
boring bleachfields, and taking its name from that of a lady married into the Smol- 
lett family. This, and another similar village named Alexandria, a little further on, 
together with the appearance of various works on a large scale scattered over the 
landscape, testify that industry of a different kind from that which becomes "em- 
browned with toil," has taken possession of the limpid waters of the Leven, to 
which, therefore, the beautiful ode of Smollett is no longer strictly applied. Bon- 
hill, the ancient seat of the novelist's family, is opposite to Alexandria. Several 
other mansions of handsome appearances enliven the road before it arrives at Bal- 
loch (town at the foot of the lake), a small village and inn at the southern extremity 
of Loch Lomond, four and a quarter miles from Dunbarton. From this place a 
steamer, on earth at least "yclept Euphrosyne," starts every morning to conduc' 
tourists along the lake. 

Loch Lomond measures twenty-three miles in length from north to south ; its 
breadth, where greatest, at the southern extremity, is five miles, from which it 
gradually grows narrower between the enclosing hills, till it terminates in a moun- 
tain streamlet. The whole aqueous surface is calculated at thirty-one and a quarter 
square miles, or twenty thousand English acres, and it is studded by above thirty 
isles, mostly at the southern extremity. These islands, together with the shores of 
the lake, are in general clothed with dark wood, which gave occasion to a distinc- 
tion very judiciously drawn a few years ago by a Swiss tourist between Lausanne 
and Loch Lomond : " Our lake," he said, " is the fair beauty — yours the black." 
The first isle that occurs is a long narrow one named Inch Murrin, at the southern 
extremity of which there is an old ruined fortalice, called Lennox castle, said to 
have formerly been a residence of the earls of Lennox. This isle is now the prop- 
erty of the duke of Montrose, who»employs it for the keeping of deer. In succes- 
sion from Inch Murrin, toward the northeast, occur Inch Cro (the isle of cattle), 
Torr Inch (the wood isle), and Inch Caillach (the island of women, having been 
the site of a nunnery). On the south side of Inch Caillach is Clar Inch (flat island), 
a very little member of the archipelago ; at the north end the ruins of a castle are 
to be seen under water, testifying that the surface of the lake must have risen in the 
course of ages. Inch Caillach, which formerly gave name to the parish of Bu- 
chanan, and was the burial place of the Macgregors, has on its north side Inch 
Fadd (long island), which bears grain and pasture, and near which is Ellendarroch 
(the small rugged island). Another group, to the northward, stretch between the 
peninsula of Rossdoe, on the west side of the lake, and Strathcashel point on the 
east. Inch Tavanagh, the first in this group, and which derives its name from 
having once been the residence of a monk, contains one hundred and fifty acres, 
partly covered with wood ; it is the highest island in the lake. At a little distance 
to the south, the ruins of Galbraith castle, once the residence of a family of that 
name, start up from the water. To the east of Inch Tavanagh are Inch Conagan, 
covered with oak and fir, and Inch Moan, a low isle correctly described by its name, 
which signifies the island of moss. Still further to the east are Inch Cruin, on 
which is an asylum for insane persons, and Buc-inch (goat-island). North from 
these lie Inch Lonaig, one hundred and fifty acres in extent, and bearing many old 
yews, formerly of great use in furnishing the materials of bows and arrows. Of 
the whole thirty islands, the remainder are unimportant. South of Luss, the depth 
of the lake is rarely more than twenty fathoms; in the northern and narrower part 
it ranges from sixty to one hundred fathoms ; and in the places where deepest never 



480 



DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 




REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY.— NATURAL CURIOSITIES 43 

freezes. In ancient times, Loch Lomond was famed for three wonders — " waves 
without winds, fish without fins, and a floating island." The first phenomenon is 
attributed to a peculiar atmospheric effect, not easily described, but which has also 
been observed on the Cumberland lakes; vipers swimming from island to island 
account for the second ; the floating island is supposed to have been a detached frag- 
ment of moss, or a matted mass of aquatic plants, which ultimately fixed itself near 
the west side of Inch Conagan. The lake abounds in delicious fish. 

Loch Lomond is skirted on the west side by the road from Dunbarton tolnverary. 
Less than a mile from the lower end of the lake this road passes Cameron house, 
long the seat of the Smolletts of Bonhill, and described as such in the novel of 
Humphrey Clinker, where we have many panegyrics upon its scenery. A little 
further on, the fine modern mansion of Belretiro overhangs the road upon the left 
Here, through a fine vista, appears the polished expanse of Loch Lomond, its large 
islands, and the soft hills in the distance — a view that never fails to arrest the atten- 
tion of the traveller. The objects that crowd into this scene are so finely diversified 
in form, in situation, and in color, as to compose a picture at once beautiful and im- 
pressive. At the seventh mile-stone, upon the left, is Arden, the property of H. Bu- 
chanan, Esq., environed with woods, and placed at the bottom of a lofty hill called 
Dunfion, or the hill of Fingal, tradition reporting it to have been one of the hunting- 
seats of that hero. Somewhat further on, and passing Nether Ross upon the left, 
the traveller crosses a small river called the Water of Fruin, which falls into the 
lake. It rises in Glenfruin, or Vale of Lamentation, so called, it is said, from a 
dreadful slaughter of the Colquhouns by the Macgregors, in 1602, and on account 
of which the Macgregors were, for nearly two centuries, unceasingly persecuted by 
government. The promontory of Rossdoe, which forms a beautiful situation for 
the mansion of the same name (Colquhoun of Luss, Bart.), is then passed ; after 
which a scene of uninterrupted beauty continues all the way to Luss, twelve miles 
from Dunbarton. 

Luss, a delightful little village, on a promontory which juts into the lake, is much 
resorted to in summer, on account of its being a convenient station for tourists in 
search of the picturesque. One of the finest points for enjoying the scenery of Loch 
Lomond and the environs of Luss, is Stronehill, to the north of the village. At this 
point, about one third of the way up a lofty hill, the whole breadth of the lake is 
spanned by the eye, including 

" all the fairy crowds 

Of islands which together lie, 
As quietly as 6pots of sky 
Among the evening clouds." 

From this point, the isles appear distinctly separated from each other, but not so 
much so as to give the idea of a map or bird-eye view, which a higher point of view 
would undoubtedly present. The prospect is bounded on the south by the distant 
hills which intervene between Loch Lomond and the Clyde, and which here appear, 
in comparison with the mountains around, to be only gentle swells ; the Leven, its 
vale, the rock of Dunbarton, and even the surface of the Clyde, are in the same 
direction conspicuous. Toward the east, the vale of the Endrick, its principal seats, 
the obelisk erected to the memory of Buchanan at Killearn, and the Lennox hills, 
are also distinctly visible. Turning to the north, the lake is seen to wind far away 
among the mountains. 

At Inveruglas, three and a half miles beyond Luss, there is a ferry to Rowarden- 
nan inn, the usual starting point for those who desire to ascend to the top of Ben 
Lomond. This mountain, situated in the county of Stirling, is three thousand two 
hundred and forty feet above the level of the lake, which is twenty-two above the 
level of the sea. At Rowardennan, when looking northward, it almost completely 
fills up the view. It consists in three great stages, each rising above the other: 
these again are divided into a number of lesser swelling knolls, some of which are 
covered with heath and crags, while others are verdant and smooth. The distance 
from the inn to the top of the mountain is six miles of a continued ascent, which, in 
general, requires about three hours. . From the summit, a varied and most extensive 
prospect opens upon the eye in every direction. The lake, lately contemplated with 
so much pleasure, now appears a small pool, and its rich and diversified islands as 
so many specks upon its surface. Beyond it, and to the left, appear the vale of the 
Endrick, the distant county of Lanark, its towns, and the mountain of Tinto 

31 



482 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

directly south, the outlet of the lake, the river Leven, its winding and rich banks, 
the castle of Dunbarton, and the counties of Renfrew and Ayr ; nearly in the same 
direction, the firth of Clyde, the rock of Ailsa, the islands of Arran and Bute, with 
the more distant Atlantic. The coast of Ireland and the Isle of Man, are, when 
the atmosphere is clear, within the boundary of the view. To the east are seen the 
counties of Stirling and the Lothians, with the windings of the Forth, and the 
castles of Stirling and Edinburgh. The prospect to the north is marked by grandeur 
alone. Immense mountains, piled as it were above each other, and extending from 
the borders of Stirlingshire to the western ocean, with the indentations of the coast 
on one side and the lakes of Perthshire on the other, form altogether a scene which 
may be conceived, but can not be properly described. 

Ben Lomond has this remarkable advantage as a hill, that it is not overcrowned 
or crowded up with surrounding hills. It seems to be sole monarch of a vast un- 
disputed territory. Nowhere, therefore, is there a better idea to be obtained of the 
Highland country than on its summit. The mountain itself, besides, affords a great 
variety of scenery. To the south it stretches out into a slope of a very gentle de- 
clivity. The north side is awfully abrupt, and presents a conclave precipice of 
many hundred yards in depth. He must possess firm nerves who can approach the 
brink and look down unmoved. The rock is said fo be two thousand feet in sheer 
descent. 

About four and a half miles to the north of Inveruglas, the Dunbarton and In- 
verary road reaches the lonely but comfortable inn of Tarbert, where there is also a 
ferry by which Ben Lomond may be approached. At this inn the road leaves the 
shore of the lake, and proceeds to the westward by the head of Loch Long, and so 
into Argyllshire. At Iversnaid mill there is a little cataract, the scene alluded to by 
Wordsworth in his address to a Highland girl : — 

" Sweet Highland girl ! a very shower 
Of beauty is thy earthly dower." 

On the heights above, beside the way to Loch Katrine, are the remains of Iversnaid 
fort, erected by the government in 1713 to check the turbulence of the Macgregors : 
near it is a little burial-ground, in which the garrison had interred their dead, and 
containing one or two monuments, which have long forgot to tell the familiar tale 
confided to them. The fort was taken by Rob Roy in 1716, but afterward regained 
and re-established. It is said that the amiable General Wolfe at one time resided 
in it.* 

FIRTH OF CLYDE — ARGYLLSHIRE. 

This is a tract of scenery much admired and visited, on account of its presenting 
a fine combination of inland seas with islands of varied surface and chains of rugged 
mountains. 

The Clyde expands into an estuary a little way below Dunbarton. There, while 
the comparatively low hills of Renfrewshire, with the thriving towns of Port-Glas- 
gow and Greenock, are seen on the left, attention is called on the right to the tow- 
ering alps of Argyllshire, sometimes ironically called the duke of Argyll's bowling- 
green. The Argyllshire shores are here decorated with a long succession of villas, 
the favorite summer residences of the more affluent citizens of Glasgow. This 
mountainous region is penetrated by several inlets of the sea, one of which, named 
Loch Long, is twenty-four miles long. Another, named the Holy Loch, is shorter, 
but surrounded by equally picturesque ground. There is also an inland lake, Loch 
Eck, which presents very beautiful scenery. 

* " On the east shore of Loch Lomond, and the west side of Ben Lomond, or what is called Craig 
rostan, a narrow alpine road conducts through scenery of gigantic features. Here tradition, conn 
tenanced by Barbour, has assigned to Robert Bruce a cave, in which he sojourned a night when 
passing from Strathlillan, after the nearly fatal combat with Macdougal of Lorn Here, too, a steep 
shelving rock is pointed out as what is called ' Rob Roy's Prison,' where that Highland laird is re- 
ported to have stowed such of his vassals as he had adjudged to durance. One of his tenants had 
not paid his rent when it became due, Rob, suspending him on a rope by the shoulders, let him down 
into the fastness. Having drawn him up at the end of* twenty-four hours, he told him that, if he 
failed to pay by a particular time, he should draw him up by the neck. North of Craigrostan is whai 
is said to have been used by him as his cave. It is a rude subterraneous recess, formed by a huge 
avalanche of the mountain. Here, according to tradition, he rendezvoused with his followers." — 
Stirling's edition of Nimmo's Stirlingshire. 



REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY.— NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 483 

Separated from this rugged district by only a narrow strait, is the island of Bute, 
displaying features only a little less highland, and remarkable for the amenity of its 
climate, on which account it is much resorted to by persons affected with pulmo- 
nary ailments. It measures fourteen miles in length by about four in breadth, and 
contains some beautiful strips of level territory, in one of which is situated the man- 
sion of the marquis of Bute. The beautiful town of Rothesay, a favorite sea-bathing 
station, occupies a fine situation on the northeast extremity of the island. Here are 
the ruins of a palace which formed the ordinary residence of the earliest sovereigns 
of the house of Stuart. The Kyles of Bute, as the strait above mentioned is named, 
is remarkable for the fine vistas of alpine scenery which it opens up to the view of 
the tourist. 

To the south of Bute lies the island of Arran, twenty-two miles long, and which 
entirely consists of a range of rocky mountains, the serrated outlines of which, as 
seen from the neighboring seas and shores, is extremely grand. The loftiest sum- 
mit, Goat-fell (called by the natives Goath-bhein, the hill of storms), is two thou- 
sand eight hundred feet high. Arran bears great value in the eyes of the geologist, 
on account of its presenting, within a narrow space, an epitome of the whole geo- 
logical structure of Scotland. Its pathless glens and picturesque hills commend it 
equally to visiters who do not inquire into the mysteries of stratification and volcanic 
agency. The whole island, excepting a few small farms, belongs to the duke of 
Hamilton, whose ancestor, James first Lord Hamilton, obtained it from the crown 
on his marrying Mary, the eldest daughter of James II., in the year 1474. There 
are now a number of large farms enclosed, subdivided, and well cultivated, having 
fine stocks of cattle and comfortable farm-steadings, where formerly there were nu- 
merous huts without chimneys or windows, and ridges running in all directions 
without a single enclosure or subdivision. At the north end of the island, under the 
lofty and isolated summit called the Cock of Arran, a small bay, denominated Loch 
Ranza, serves as a natural harbor, in which capacity it is turned to great advantage 
in the herring fishery. On the shore of the bay there are a few scattered houses, an 
inn, an ancient castle in ruins, and a preaching station. A road sweeping round the 
east shore of the island leads to Brodick bay, at the bottom of which there is a beau- 
tiful tract of low and sloping ground, ornamented with some fine wood, containing 
a bamlet, which forms a favorite resort for sea-bathing. On the adjacent height, 
amid ancient woods, is the ancient chateau of Brodick, a mansion of the duke of 
Hamilton. From this place a road strikes across the island, and opens up some 
magnificent scenery. Two or three miles to the southward of Brodick, the shore 
forms the more spacious recess of Lamlash bay, at the bottom of which is a village 
of the same name, while it is landlocked in front by Holy island, a small isle which 
formerly contained a monastery. Lamlash bay is of great importance to the navi- 
gation of the Clyde and Irish channel, as an unfailing retreat for distressed vessels. 

Loch Fyne, a long narrow estuary, having the ridgy promontory of Kintyre on the 
one side and the district of Cowal on the other, opens up much fine scenery. In 
sailing up the loch, the first remarkable place is Tarbert, a fishing village situated 
at the bottom of a beautiful small bay, with a ruined fortalice of the Argyll family 
perched on a rock by its side. Further up the loch is Inverary castle, the principal 
seat of the ancient and illustrious house of Argyll. The rugged sylvan scenery 
around this mansion, with its views of seas, mountains, and distant islands, excites 
general admiration. Between Inverary and the inn of Tarbert on Loch Lomond, a 
road opens up a splendid tract of mountain scenery, the most striking being compre- 
hended in the valley of Glencoe. Another road, proceeding in a northerly direction, 
leads to Loch Awe, p. 473, an inland lake possessing many fine features, and upon 
which stands the ruined castle of Kilchurn, once the chief stronghold of the Bread- 
albane family. The loch is overhung by Ben Cruachan, a mountain three thousand 
three hundred and ninety feet in height, on the skirts of which King Robert Bruce 
gained a victory over his powerful enemy, the Lord of Lorn. 

The northern portion of Argyllshire, where it is bounded by the western ocean 
and its many inlets, contains much fine scenery. In a sheltered situation on the west 
coast, stands the neat and cheerful town of Oban, a point of rendezvous for the nu- 
merous steamers permeating these seas, and a kind of entrepot for the rural produce 
of the wide district around it. In front is the isle of Kerrera, where Alexander II. 
died in the course of an expedition to the western islands. On the coast a little to 
the north of Oban, is Dunolly castle, the mansion of the Macdougals of Lorn, and a 



484 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAJNO 

.ittle way further north is DunstafTnage, an ancient seat of tne Caledonian kings, oc- 
cupying a commanding site on the top of a rock overlooking the sea. 

Loch Linnhe, opening between Lorn and Morven, and the commencement of the 
chain of salt and freshwater lakes formed into the Caledonian canal, presents on 
both sides scenery of a most romantic character — a mixture of bold rocky forelands, 
on many of which are perched the eyry-like fortresses of the rude chiefs of the olden 
time, and green smiling hollows, within bays, where the elegant habitations of a 
modern gentry have been placed. The long island of Lismore, in the mouth of this 
estuary, was the ancient appanage of the bishops of Argyll, and temporarily the site 
of a college for catholic priests, after the French seminaries were closed by the revo- 
lution ; but is now only remarkable for the great quantity of limestone exported from 
it. Opposite to its upper extremity, Loch Creran, a sub-estuary, branches off into 
the land of Lorn, opening up much beautiful scenery. On the south shore of Loch 
Linnhe, to the north of the opening of Loch Creran, is the district of Appin, previ- 
ous to 1765 the property of a race of Stewarts, descended from a natural son of the 
last Lord Lorn, and for four centuries conspicuous in Highland history. In this dis- 
trict, the first mansion which occurs to the north of Loch Creran, is Airds, the seat 
of Sir John Campbell. Next is the ruin of Castle Stalker, an ancient massive build- 
ing. Appin house, the seat of Mr. Downie of Appin, next occurs ; and after that, at 
the mouth of Loch Leven, Ardshiel (Stewart Esqt). From Ballahulish ferry on 
Loch Leven, noted for its great quarry of slate, the west Highland road penetrates 
the savage vale of Glencoe. 

Glencoe opens a little to the north of a solitary inn called the King's house, and 
extends about ten miles in a northwesterly direction to Ballahulish. It may be de- 
scribed as a narrow strip of rugged territory, along which hurries the wild stream 
of Cona, celebrated by Ossian, who is said to have been born on its banks. On 
each side of the narrow banks of this river, a range of stupendous hills shoots per- 
pendicularly up to the height of at least two thousand feet, casting a horrid gloom 
over the vale, and impressing the lonely traveller with feelings of awe and wonder. 
The military road sweeps along the right side of the glen. From the sides of the 
hills an immense number of torrents descend, sometimes sweeping over and spoil- 
ing the road, which is always, therefore, in a very precarious state. From the one 
end of the vale to the other, only one human habitation is to be seen ; and as it is 
not a road of much currency, the traveller may pass through it without meeting a 
single human being. The goats scrambling among the rocks, and the wild eagle 
hovering about the tops of the wall-like hills, are usually the only living objects 
within sight; and, as maybe conceived, these rather increase than diminish the 
wildness and desolation of the scene. The place where the famous massacre of 
1 1 Lencoe happened is at the northwest end of the vale. 

INVERNESS-SHIRE. — THE GREAT GLEN. 

Between Loch Linnhe on the west coast, and a point on the Moray Firth near 
Inverness, there is a remarkable natural phenomenon, in the form of "a glen or hol- 
low passing in a perfectly straight line for sixty miles, through a mountainous re- 
gion, and the bottom of which is nowhere more than ninety feet elevated above the 
level of the sea. It is called by the Highlanders Glenmore-nan-Albin (the great glen 
of Scotland). A chain of Jakes extending along this extraordinary hollow suggested 
the formation of a canal which should admit of navigation between the seas on the 
two sides of the island, and save the dangerous passage round by the Pentland firth : 
and this, under the name of the Caledonian canal, was formed between 1803 and 
1822, under the care of Mr. Telford, at an expense of eight hundred thousand pounds. 
This line of communication has not proved so useful as was contemplated : but, by 
admitting of a line of steamers between Inverness and Glasgow, it has been the 
means of allowing a vast number of persons to enjoy the magnificent scenery through 
which it passes. 

The canal commences at Clachnaharry, in the outskirts of the town of Inverness 
and, after six miles, enters the first of the chain of lakes, Loch Ness, a grand piece 
of water, twenty-three miles long, situated amid stupendous and sterile mountain* 
The waters of Loch Ness never freeze, but they are often agitated simultaneously 
with the occurrence of earthquakes in distant parts of the world. On an elevated 
rock projected into the northeast margin of Loch Ness, are situated the remains of 
Urquhart castle, consisting of a great square keep and several exterior walls of de 



REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY—NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 485 




486 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

fence. It was besieged in 1303 by tbe officers of Edward I., and with great diffi- 
culty taken ; it afterward was a royal fortress ; and, finally, in 1509, it became the 
property of Grant of Grant, ancester of the earl of Seafield, to whom it now belongs. 
Glen Urquhart, which recedes behind Urquhart castle, is a beautiful highland vale, 
sometimes likened toTempe, and containing many gentlemen's seats and a good inn. 
The conspicuous mountain, Mealfourvonie (hill of the cold moor), upward of three 
thousand feet in height, here begins to raise its huge bulk above the banks of the 
loch. About five hundred feet from the summit, there is a lake about a mile long, 
which can not be much less than three thousand feet above the level of Loch Ness. 
On the top of the hill there is a cairn, the accumulation of which must have been a 
work of great labor. Mealfourvonie stands so prominently above the neighboring 
herd of hills, that it is not only singled out by the eye at Inverness, but is the first 
landmark seen on entering the Moray firth, at the distance of a hundred miles. 

The road along the south side of Loch Ness, though it presents numberless fine 
views, is enlivened by few traces of man's presence. The paucity of houses gives a 
sort of distinction to the inn named General's hut, nearly eighteen miles from Inver- 
ness, originally the residence of General Wade, while superintending the formation 
of his roads. Little more than a mile further on, a recess or chasm in the hill by 
the side of the lake contains the celebrated Fall of Fyers. At the bottom of the 
recess there is a smooth little plain, descending upon the lake, ornamented by the 
house and shrubberies of Fyers, and where the steamers usually disembark such 
passengers as may desire to behold the waterfall. A path accessible to carriages 
winds backward and forward up the face of the hill, till the height of the public 
road is reached ; and then there is a pathway leading down the face of the crags, 
toward a projecting rock, on which visiters usually stand to see the fall. The Fyers 
is not a very copious stream, except in rainy weather ; consequently there are great 
variations in the aspect of the cascade. -In its medium fulness, it pours through a 
narrow gullet in the rock, in a round unbroken stream, which gradually whitens, as 
it descends, till it falls into a half-seen profound, usually described as two hundred 
and forty feet below the point of descent, though this is supposed to be an exaggera- 
tion. A dense mist is constantly seen rising from the broken water, like the heav- 
enward aspirations of an afflicted and tortured spirit. The noise is usually very 
loud. About a quarter of a mile further up the ravine, there is another cascade, 
usually called the Upper fall — a fearful gulf, down which the water descends by 
three leaps, and over which a bridge has been thrown, by way of station for a sight 
of the cataract. All this stupendous ravine is covered by birches, on whose every 
leaf a pearl of vapory dew is constantly hanging. 

A few miles further on, Glenmorrison opens upon the northwest bank of Loch 
Ness. It is a valley full of romantic scenery, and belongs to a branch of the family 
of Grant. While the steam-borne traveller necessarily pursues the route by the 
lake, the traveller by the south road, after passing Fyers, leaves the brink of that 
piece of water, and advances into Stratherrick, a long valley behind the line of hills 
which overlook Loch Ness. A secluded valley, called Kiilean, opening upon this 
part of the road near Whitebridge, is spoken of as a singularly secluded and roman- 
tic piece of scenery. At the distance of thirty-two miles from Inverness, the road 
descends upon Fort Augustus and the little village of Lillicumming, so called as the 
burying-place of the Cummings, lords of Badenoch. 

Fort Augustus, situated in a pleasant opening among the hills, at the termination 
of Loch Ness, was erected in 1730, as an addition to the means previously existing 
for the control of the turbulent children of the mountains. Its purposes being long 
since accomplished, it has for many years been only occupied by two or three artil- 
lerymen. From Fort Augustus, the cut of the canal is resumed, and several locks 
are ascended ; a very few miles brings it to Loch Oich, the smallest of the chain of 
lakes. The scenery is here finer than at any other part of the Great glen. On the 
northwest bank of the loch is Invergarry, till a recent period the residence of the 
chief of Glengarry, a handsome modern building, in the immediate neighborhood 
of an older mansion, which has been in ruins since burnt down by the king's troops 
in 1746, in consequence of the part taken by the chief in the rebellion. 

The next and last loch is Loch Lochy, the hills environing which are the most 
hopelessly wild and stupendous of all in the glen. The summit level of the canal 
is between Loch Oich and Loch Lochy, being ninety feet above the ordinary high- 
water mark at Fort William, and ninety-four above that at Inverness — a difference 



REMARKABLE NATURAL SCENERY.— NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 487 

to be accounted for by the pressure of the Atlantic on the west shores of Scotland. 
The lonely little inn of Letter Findlay is the only house at first seen on Loch Lochy ; 
but when the west end is nearly reached, the traveller discovers, in a recess on the 
right side, the house of Auchnacarrie, which was the residence of the gallant and 
unfortunate Locheil, before he entered upon the fatal campaign of 1745. The canal, 
after leaving this loch, descends in a precipitous series of locks, called Neptune's 
Staircase, into Loch Eil, a continuation of Loch Linnhe, the arm of the sea formerly 
mentioned. 

At this point the glen is more spacious than anywhere else. It is, however, the 
spaciousness of a moor. The river Lochy, which issues from the lake of the same 
name, pours its voluminous and impetuous flood toward Loch Eil on the left ; and 
beyond it Ben Nevis is seen to rear his enormous head, with the vale of Glen Nevis 
withdrawing from his mighty side into the solitudes of Lochaber. At the distance 
of little more than a mile is the town of Fort William, so called from a fortress of 
the same name built for the repression of Highland turbulence, and now nearly 
disused. 

A cluster of glens to the south of the great Glen, is remarkable for a natural 
phenomenon, usually called the Parallel Roads of Glenroy, such being the name of 
the vale in which the wonder is most conspicuously marked. It consists of a set of 
terraces, in most places three in number, extending along both sides of these vales 
for many miles, the uppermost eighty-two feet above the second, which, again, is 
two hundred and twelve feet above the first. The common people represent these 
terraces as roads formed at the command of Fingal, an early hero, for his convenience 
in hunting ; but they are in Yeality ancient beaches of inland seas, raised into their 
present position by successive upheavals of the land — phenomena with which modern 
geologists are familiar. 

WESTERN ISLANDS. 

The Western Islands are generally bleak and rugged in surface, and occupied by 
a very poor class of tenantry. In some of them, particularly Skye and Eigg, the 
scenery attains to a savage grandeur. It is not possible here to present a particular 
description of any besides the isle of Staffa, so remarkable for its basaltic structure. 
It is about a mile and a half in circumference, and bears no human habitation, its 
only useful tenants being a small herd of black cattle. At the point of greatest ele- 
vation, toward the southwest, this island is one hundred and forty-four feet high. On 
the northeast it presents a face of somewhat less height, composed of basaltic col- 
umns, and penetrated by several caves of various sizes, into which the sea occasion- 
ally breaks with the report of thunder. This face, according to Dr. M'Culloch, is 
formed of three distinct beds of rock, of unequal thickness, inclined toward the east 
in an angle of about nine degrees: the lowest is a rude trap tufa ; the middle one is 
divided into columns placed vertically to the planes of the lowest bed ; and the up- 
permost is an irregular mixture of small columns and shapeless rock — the whole 
being partially covered by a fine verdure. The central columnar part having in some 
places given way, is the occasion of the numerous caves by which the island seems 
perforated. 

At the northeast point of the island, the dipping of the rocks is so low as to afford 
a safe landing-place at any time of the tide. Proceeding thence, the visiter is con- 
ducted along the northeast face, and is introduced to the Clamshell (Scallop) cave, 
where a curious confusion in the columnar structure is observable. The columns on 
one side are bent, so as to form a series of ribs not unlike the inside view of the tim- 
bers of a ship, while the opposite wall is formed by the ends of columns, bearing a 
general resemblance to the surface of a honeycomb. This cave is thirty feet in 
height, and sixteen or eighteen in breadth at the entrance ; its length being one hun- 
dred and thirty feet, and the breadth contracting to the termination. Next occurs 
the noted rock Buachaille (the herdsman), a conoidal pile of columns, about thirty 
feet high, lying on a bed of curved horizontal ones, visible only at low water. There 
is here an extensive surface, resembling that of the Giant's Causeway, and composed 
of the broken ends of pillars once continuous to the top of the cliff. The colonnade 
is now for some distance upright and very grand, till the visiter reaches the Uaimh 
Binn (Musical ca.ve), usually called Fingal's cave, by far the most impressive and 
interesting object in the island. It opens from the sea with a breadth of forty-two 



488 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

feet, a height of sixty-six feet above the water at mean tide, the pillar on one side 
being thirty-six feet high, and that on the other eighteen. The depth of the recess 
is two hundred and twenty-seven feet, and the breadth at the inner termination 
twenty-two. The sides within are columnar throughout ; the columns being broken 
and grouped in many different ways, so as to catch a variety of direct and reflected 
tints, mixed with secondary shadows and deep invisible recesses. As the sea never 
ebbs entirely out, the only floor of this beautiful cave is the fine green water, reflect- 
ing from its white bottom tints which vary ind harmonize the darker tones of the 
rock, and often throwing on the columns flickering lights, which its undulations catch 
from the rays of the sun without. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

ANTIQUITIES. 

There are in Scotland, and particularly in the district between the Firth of Tay 
and Moray Firth, numerous mounds, upright slab stones, and carved stones, which 
are supposed to have been raised as monuments over slain warriors by the early in- 
habitants of the country, or by the Danes or other northern nations who occasionally 
invaded it in remote times. The most remarkable examples of mounds are two at 
Dunnipace, on the Carron, in Stirlingshire, and one at Fettercairn, in Kincardine- 
shire. 

A distinct class of mounds, called moot or moat hills, are common in the south- 
western and several other districts. They are generally of a square form, with a flat 
top. It is believed that they served as places for the administration of justice in rude 
ages. 

Of the carved stones a remarkable example is termed Sueno's pillar. This curious 
and interesting stone, of which the accompanying engraving gives a correct represen- 
tation, is situated at a short distance from the town of Forres, in the county of Elgin. 
It is only a few yards off the road leading from Elgin to Inverness. It is admitted 
on all hands to be the most singular monument of the kind in "Great Britain, perhaps 
in Europe. Many of our most distinguished antiquarians are indeed of opinion that 
it has no parallel in any country, Egypt excepted. It is cut out of a large block of 
granite stone of the hardest kind to be found in Scotland. In height it measures 
twenty-five feet, and in breadth, near its base, nearly four feet. It is divided into 
seven departments. It is sculptured on both sides ; but that which looks in an east- 
ern direction is by far the most interesting, not only because it is more crowded with 
figures than the other, but because those figures are executed in such a manner as 
shows that those by whose instructions it was erected, regarded it as that which 
would chiefly perpetuate whatever occurrence it was intended to record. The high- 
est department of the obelisk contains representations of nine horses, each having a 
rider, who is apparently rejoicing at the accomplishment of some important object, 
most probably of some great victory which has been gained. The figures on this 
division of the stone are more defaced by time than those on the other divisions, but 
are still sufficiently distinct to prevent any mistake as to what they are. In the next 
department appear a number of men all in a warlike attitude. Some of them are 
brandishing theii weapons, while others, as if exulting at some joyful event, are rep- 
resented as homing their shields on high. Others, again, are in the act of joining 
hands, either as if mutually congratulating each other, or as a pledge of reciprocal 
encouragement and assistance. In the centre of the next line of figures appear two 
warriors, who seemingly are either making preparations for, or are already engaged 
in single combat, while their respective friends are witnessing the conflict with the 
liveliest interest. Next we have % t*roup of figures witnessing one. of their number 
beheading, in cold blood, the prisoners who had been taken in war. Close by is a 



ANTIQUITIES. 



489 




490 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

kind of canopy, which covers the heads of those who have been executed. This 
canopy is guarded by men each bearing a halberd. A number of dead bodies are 
lying on one side. Next are trumpeters blowing their trumpets, in testimony, no 
doubt, of the triumph which has been obtained by the parties, to commemorate whose 
deeds the monument was raised. In the next division we have a troop of horses put 
to flight by a band of infantry, whose first line are armed with bows and arrows, 
while those which follow are accoutred with swords and targets. In the next and 
last department of the stone, the horses seem to be seized by the conquering party, 
the riders are beheaded, and the head of the chief or leader is suspended, which is 
probably meant to denote the same degradation as if it were hung in chains. The 
other side of the obelisk is chiefly occupied with a large cross. Beneath it are two 
persons evidently of great consequence. They are accompanied by a retinue of at- 
tendants, and embrace each other as if in the act of becoming reconciled together. 

Such is a description of this very extraordinary monument. As to its origin, or the 
particular events it was intended to commemorate, we are unfortunately left in un- 
certainty. Every historian, every traveller, and indeed most of the antiquarians in 
Scotland, have all more or less turned their attention to the subject; but no two of 
them are agreed as to the purposes for which it was erected. Some suppose, from 
the circumstance of the cross being on the obverse side, that it was planted to com- 
memorate the first establishment of Christianity in Scotland. This, however, is very 
unlikely: for, had such been its object, it is difficult to see what connexion so many 
warlike figures could have had with it. Others maintain that it was raised in memory 
of the battle of Mortlach, which battle, having been gained by the Scots over the 
Danes, eventually led to the expulsion of the latter from the kingdom. This is also 
a very improbable hypothesis, the battle in question having been fought nearly twenty 
miles from the spot where the stone is erected. In fact, there is scarcely any event 
of national importance that occurred between the commencement of the tenth and 
the end of the twelfth centurys — for the date of the pillar is generally supposed to 
lie between those two periods — but has been supposed by some antiquarian or other 
to have been the cause of its erection. 

The hypothesis of the Rev. Charles Cordiner, a distinguished northern antiquarian 
of the last century, respecting the origin of this monument, appears to us the most 
probable. His opinion is that it was raised to commemorate the defeat and expul- 
sion from Scotland, by the Scots, of those Scandinavian adventurers mentioned in the 
" Annals of Torfans," who, joined by a number of chieftains from the opposite coast 
of Caithness, had, in the ninth century, established themselves at the neighboring 
promontory of Burghead, and who, during the one hundred and fifty years they kept 
possession of the place, committed the most serious depredations throughout the sur- 
rounding country. In support of his hypothesis Mr. Cordiner reasons in this way : — 

" In their sanguine endeavors to extend their sway, and at the same time secure a 
more speedy retreat to their lines, when carrying off booty, or baffled in any attempt, 
the aid of cavalry was of essential and almost indispensable importance, and natu- 
rally became the distinguishing characteristic of their forces. 

" Of consequence, as it was the great object of Caledonian policy and valor to seize 
their horses, in order to defeat their enterprises; so when, at a fortunate period, they 
succeeded in totally routing the Scandinavian bands, and compelling them to leave 
their shores, if they wished to erect a conspicuous memorial of the event, the most 
striking article would be to exhibit the seizure of the horses, and the inflicting a cap- 
ital penalty on their riders ; and this is done in the most conspicuous department of 
the column. 

" It is moreover evident, from the concurring testimony of history and tradition, 
that part of the troops and warlike adventurers which had embarked in the grand 
expedition undertaken by 01au#, prince of Norway, about the year 1000, did rein- 
force the garrison at Eccialsbacca, in the burgh of Moray, and made some daring 
advances toward the subduing of the surrounding countries — and that, soon after that 
period, their repeated defeats induced them wholly to relinquish their settlement in 
that province. 

" No event was therefore more likely to become a subject of national gratitude 
and honor, than those actions in which the princes of Norway and their military ad- 
herents were totally defeated, and which so fully paved the way for returning peace 
to smile over these harassed and extensive territories. And, in consequence of the 



ANTIQUITIES. 491 

Scandinavian forces finally evacuating their posts, a treaty of amicable alliance might 
be formed between Malcolm and Canute, or Sueno, king of Norway ; and the august 
figures on the base of the cross have been sculptured to express that important recon- 
ciliation, while the figures on the adjacent edge of the obelisk, which are joined hand 
in hand, and in attitudes of friendly communication, may allude to the new degrees 
of mutual confidence and security which took place after the feuds were settled that 
are represented on the front of the column." 

The traditions of the country are certainly more in favor of this view of the mat- 
ter than of any other hypothesis which has been advanced. The very name, in- 
deed, given to the pillar, viz., " Sueno's Stone," which it has retained from time 
immemorial, shows that the opinion of the peasantry in the district always has been, 
that that Norwegian monarch must have been, in some way or other, connected with 
its erection. 

There is another very entire and curious specimen at Aberlemno, in Forfarshire. 
A third, at Meigle, is remarkable as containing a representation of one of the war 
chariots used by the original inhabitants of the country. 

In the north of Scotland, and in Orkney, there are some surviving examples of a 
very remarkable class of early buildings, to which the common people now give the 
name of " Picts' houses," as supposing them to have been built by the Picts. They 
are generally round buildings, of no great height, with round vaulted tops, altogether 
built of courses of dressed stone without mortar, and containing for the most part one 
central chamber, and several long, narrow recesses in the thickness of the wall. 

Circular mounds, the remains of British and Danish camps, are common on the 
tops of the Scottish hills, having probably been the places to which the early people 
retired with their flocks in times of danger. On several hills, particularly in Perth- 
shire and Inverness-shire, there are remains of walls, presenting appearances as if 
the stony materials had been artificially vitrified. It is not yet clearly ascertained 
whether these " vitrified forts," as they are called, were works of our Caledonian an- 
cestors, or the effect of accident, though the former is certainly the more likely sup- 
position. 

The weapons used by the aboriginal people are often found, consisting of stone- 
axes, arrow-heads of flint, &c. Necklaces, bracelets, and other ornaments used by 
them, barbarous in style, but generally of gold, are also often found. In various dis- 
tricts, druidical circles still exist in a tolerably entire state ; but none on so large or 
regular a scale as those of Stonehenge and Abury. 

There are remains of roads and camps formed by the Romans in their hesitating 
and imperfect attempts to subdue North Britain ; and of the wall built under the 
Emperor Antoninus, between the Firths of Forth and Clyde, with forts at regular 
intervals, it is still possible to discern a few traces. 

The next class of antique objects are the remains of the Gothic fanes, reared on 
account of religion during the period when the Romish church was triumphant. 
These are everywhere very numerous, but in few cases tolerably entire. Excepting 
two cathedrals, those of Glasgow and of Kirkwall (in Orkney), all of that class of 
structures are in ruins. The abbeys, priories, and other conventual and collegiate 
establishments, are in every instance gone to decay. Melrose abbey, the cathedral 
of Elgin, and the collegiate church of Roslin, are the most beautiful of these ruinous 
buildings. 

Melrose abbey stands in one of the vales of the Tweed, in the county of Roxburgh, 
having that river flowing on the north of it, and the Eildon hills looking down upon 
it from the south. The first abbey of Melrose stood about two miles east from the 
present, on the same bank of the Tweed, in a peninsula formed by a turn of the river, 
and terminating in a rocky precipice of some elevation. Hence the name Mail-ross, 
which in Celtic signifies a naked promontory, or tongue of land. The spot is still 
occupied by a hamlet called old Melrose, to distinguish it from the larger village 
which surrounds the present abbey. This first house was a foundation of great 
antiquity, having been erected soon after the commencement of the seventh century. 

It was tenanted by an association of the Culdees, the primitive Christian clergy of 
Scotland and is stated by Bede to have become an establishment of great celebrity 
so early as the year 664. It was here that the famous St. Cuthbert commenced his 
monastic life, and acquired the reputation which in his old age occasioned his trans- 
ference to the greater monastery of Lmdisfarne. The first monastery of Melrose, how* 



492 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

ever, like all the religious buildings of those times, was probably a very humble 
edifice, and is said indeed to have been built only of wood. Parts of the foundation 
of a wall by which it had been surrounded are still to be seen ; but no 'trace is to be 
discovered of the house itself. 

The present abbey was founded in 1136, by King David I., commonly called St. 
David — " a sore saint for the crown," as he was characterized by his descendant 
James VI., in allusion to the curtailment of the royal patrimony occasioned by his 
pious liberality. The new monastery was peopled as soon as finished by an importa- 
tion of Cistertians from the hive of Rievaulx, in Yorkshire, the first of that order 
of monks which had been seen in Scotland, whence Melrose retained ever after the 
dignity of the mother Cistertian church of that country. It was dedicated to the 
virgin in 1146. 

The history of this abbey during the four centuries it existed, presents very few 
incidents to distinguish it from that of similar establishments. There is a valuable 
document, known as the " Chronicle of Melrose," being a chronological account of 
Scottish affairs from 735 to 1270, compiled by the mon'ks, which Thomas Gale has 
published in the first volume of his"Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores." From the 
successive donations of its royal and other benefactors, it rapidly rose to great wealth, 
and that notwithstanding the spoliation which it repeatedly sustained from incursions 
of the English, when the two countries were at war. In 1561, immediately before 
the dissolution, its revenues amounted to £1,758 in money, besides large quantities of 
wheal, beer, meal, oats, poul y, butter, salt, fee. The number of monks in later 
times seems to have varied from eighty to about one hundred. 

After the reformation the monastery and its estates were granted by Queen Mary 
to the infamous James Hepburn, Earl of Both well, whom she afterward married.' 
On his forfeiture they were bestowed on James Douglass, a brother of the earl of 
Morton ; and' they subsequently passed through various possessors, till they were 
purchased, in the course of the last century, by the family of Buccleugh, to whom 
they now belong. Douglass pulled down a part of the abbey, and with the materials 
erected a mansion in the vicinity, which is still standing. It is probable, however, 
that the building suffered considerably before this in the tumults by which the reform- 
ation in Scotland was attended. It is said to have received much additional injury 
from a popular attack upon it, as a monument of popery and episcopacy, in 1649. 
On this occasion, many of the statues, or images, as they would be called, with 
which it was adorned, were broken to pieces ; and indeed, the tradition is, that the 
work of demolition was put an end to by a fright which the mob received from an 
accident which befell one of them, while levelling a blow at a figure of the Virgin. 
It appears at any rate that many of the statues which are now gone were in exist- 
ence long after this time, as may be seen by an engraving of the abbey given in the 
first edition of " Slezer's Theatrum Scotioe," published in 1693. 

The church had been in the form of a cross, and the ruins which still remain con- 
sist principally of the southern transept, a portion of the square tower which rose 
over the centre of the building, and the portion of the body of the church, including 
the choir, and part of the nave, to the east of the tower. The roof has nearly all 
fallen in. Still, even in this state of decay and desolation, the pile remains a monu- 
ment of architectural taste and skill of almost unrivalled beauty. " Mailross," writes 
the eminent antiquary Francis Drake, in a letter to Roger Gale, dated 14th July, 
1742, " I shall take upon me to say, has been the most exquisite structure of its kind 
in either kingdom." Mr. Hutchinson, in his " View of Northumberland" (2 vols. 4to. 
177S), from whose account of Melrose the notices that have since appeared have 
been chiefly borrowed, expresses himself in terms of equally fervent admiration. 
Speaking of the ornamental work on the door which had led from the northern tran- 
sept to the cloister, he says: "The fillet of foliage and flowers is of the highest 
finishing that can be conceived to be executed in freestone, the same being pierced, 
the flowers and leaves separated from the stone behind, and suspended in a twisted 
garland. In the mouldings, pinnacle work-, and foliage, of the seats which remain 
of the cloister, I am bold to say there is as great excellence to be found, as in any 
stone work in Europe, for lightness, ease, and disposition. Nature is studied through 
the whole, and the flowers and plants are represented as accurately as under the 
pencil. In this fabric there are the finest lessons, and the greatest variety of Gothic 
ornaments that the island affords, take all the religious structures together." 



ANTIQUITIES. 



493 




494 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND- 

The chisel of the sculptor who thus ornamented Melrose, has been singularly for- 
tunate in the material upon which it was exercised. "The stone," says Scott, 
" though it has resisted the weather for so many ages, retains perfect sharpness, so 
that even the most minute ornaments seem as entire as when newly wrought. In 
some of the cloisters there are representations of flowers, vegetables, &c, carved 
in stone, with accuracy and precision so delicate, that we almost distrust our senses, 
when we consider the difficulty of subjecting so hard a substance to such intricate 
and exquisite modulation." In the poem to which this note is appended, " the Lay 
of the last Minstrel," the following lines also occur, descriptive of the beauty of these 
representations and their nice fidelity to nature : — 

" Spreading herbs and flowerets bright, 
Glistened with the dew of night ; 
Nor herb nor floweret glistened there, > 

But was carved in the cloister arches as fair. 

# * * # • 

By a steel-clenched postern door 

They entered now the chancel tall, 

The darkened roof rose high aloof 

On pillars, lofty, and light, and small ; 

The key-stone that locked each ribbed aisle, 

Was a fleur-de-lys, or a quatre feuille ; 

The corbells were carved grotesque and grim ; 

And the pillars with clustered shafts so trim, 

With base and with capital flourished around. 

Seemed bundles of lances which garlands had bound." 

The most superb parts of the ruin are the entry to the southern transept with the 
window over it, and the great eastern window, both of which are represented in our 
engraving. Scott thus describes the latter as seen from the interior, by his hero, 
William of Deloraine, and his guide, " the Monk of St. Mary's aisle": — 

" The moon on the east oriel shone, 
Through slender shafts of shapely stone, 
By foliaged tracery combined ; 
Thou wouldst have thought some fairy's hand, 
'Twixt poplars straight the osier wand, 
In many a freakish knot, had twined ; 
Then framed a spell, when the work was done, 
And changed the willow- wreaths to stone. 
The silver light, so pale and faint, 
Showed many a prophet, and many a saint, 
Whose image on the glass was dyed ; 
Full in the midst his cross of red 
Triumphant Michael brandished 
And trampled the Apostate's pride. 
The moonbeam kissed the holy pane, 
And threw on the pavement a bloody stain." 

According to Hutchinson, the entire length of the abbey is two hundred and, fifty- 
eight feet, and that of the transept one hundred and thirty-seven feet. What remains 
of the tower is seventy-five feet in height, but it appears to have been anciently sur- 
mounted by a spire. The character of the architecture proves that very little of the 
building erected by David T. now remains. The monastery is known to have under- 
gone an extensive restoration during the reign of Robert Bruce in the early part of 
the fourteenth century ; and what we now see is probably the work of that age. 

There is no other remnant of antiquity in Scotland which has of late years been 
so much visited by strangers as Melrose. Since the publication of " the Lay of the 
last Minstrel," especially, the fame of the place has been carried wherever the Eng- 
lish language is known. This general admiration has occasioned a good deal to be 
done for the preservation of the ruin. Formerly a part of the nave was used as the 
parish church, and the erections rendered necessary by this appropriation sadly 
injured the effect of the ancient architecture. A new parish church has lately been 
built, and the abbey is left to the solitude and silence best becoming its dismantled 
state, and that of the fallen faith of which it is the monument. The beautiful ruin 
may now be contemplated without the pensive remembrances which it recalls being 



ANTIQUITIES. 



49o 



broken in upon by any foreign and incongruous association, as tbe well-known lines 

of Scott have described it : — 

" If thou wouldst view fair Melrose aright, 
Go visit it by the pale moonlight ; 
Eor the gay beams of lightsome day 
Gild, but to float, the ruins gray. 
When the broken arches are black in night, 
And each shafted oriel glimmers white ; 
When the cold light's uncertain shower 
Streams on the ruined central tower : 
When buttress and buttress, alternately, 
Seem framed of ebon and ivory ; 
When silver edges the imagery, 
And tbe scrolls that teach thee to live and die ; 
When distant Tweed is heard to rave. 
And the owlet to hoot o'er the dead man's grave ; 
Then eo — but go alone the while — 
Then view St. David's ruined pile ; 
And, home returning, soothly swear. 
Was never scene so sad and fair !" 

Drvbursh abbev, a picturesque and lovely ruin, where rest tbe remains of Sir Wal- 
ter Scott, "is situated on Tweed side, about* halfway between Smailholm and Abbots- 
ford : Smailholm. which was the spot where Scott passed his infancy, and Abbots- 
ford which his glories hare immortalized. 




Dryburgh Abbey. 

Drvbur^h abbev presents but few remains of its former grandeur, but still the 
beholder Is much gratified bv the vastness of the ruin, over which the green ivy 
hrows a verdant robe, and when seen by moonlight, the pale beams of that wander- 
ino- planet, o-ive a melancholv and soothing softness to the scene. 

About three miles south from Staffa, and within a mile of the southern extremity 
of Mull lie' the famous Iona— " once," in the language of Dr. Johnson, /' the lumi- 
nary of 'the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived 
the'benefits of knowledge^ the blessings of religion." The name Iona is merely 
the Celtic term I-thona (the th not pronounced), signifying the Isle of AN ayes, iona 
te now commonly called I (pronounced ee), that is, the isle-a name which seem* to 



496 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

have been bestowed upon it by way of pre-eminence in very remote times. It is so 
designated by Bede, who wrote in the beginning of the eighth century. It is some- 
times also more formally or emphatically distinguished as I-colm-kill, that is, tne 
isle of Columba's cell. 

Iona is larger than StafFa, but still of very limited dimensions, being only about 
three miles in length, from southwest to northeast, and scarcely a mile across at its 
greatest breadth. On the west side the coast is for the most part rocky ; but on the 
east it is more level. The two principal plains are at the northern extremity of the 
island, one called the Bay of Martyrs, on the west side ; the other, that on which the 
village is built, looking to the east. The population consisting now of about ninety 
families, or four hundred and fifty individuals, is all collected in this last-mentioned 
corner. Iona has long enjoyed the reputation of extraordinary fertility : and all the 
old accounts celebrate its eminence in this respect. But the praises it has received 
are probably to be interpreted, with a reference to its peculiar locality, and as mean- 
ing only that its soil was more productive than that of the desolate and savage re- 
gions by which it is surrounded. 

There is reason to believe that this little isle was a sacred spot even long before 
it was shone upon by the light of Christianity. Here the Druids are supposed to have 
celebrated their mysterious and bloody rites ; it is said to have then borne the name 
of Inish Druinish, the island of the Druids ; and a green eminence near the east coast 
is still distinguished by the epithet of their burying-place. It was probably the fame 
of its ancient sanctity which induced St. Columba to fix upon it as a residence for 
himself and his companions,' when he came over from Ireland to convert the north- 
ern Scots, according to Bede, in the year 565. It is certain at least that here he es- 
tablished himsllf, having, it is said, obtained a grant of the island from the king who 
then reigned in Scotland. 

St. Columba must have been a man of no ordinary endowments, both natural and 
acquired, and far in advance of the dark and rude age in which he lived. Wherever 
he may have been educated, he appears to have been possessed of all the knowledge 
of his time; a: I may be considered to have introduced the light of letters as well 
as that of religion into the country of his adoption. Columba's works, which are in 
Latin, were published at Louvain, in 1667, under the superintendence of Patrick 
Fleming, a countryman of his own. The saint is said to have died in 597. 

Whatever may have been the exact nature of the institution established by St. 
Columba in Iona, it could hardly have been governed on any principle of monastic 
discipline, of which no trace is to be found in the history of the church till long after 
his time. It rather appears to have been a seminary for the education of the priest- 
hood, or what we should now call a theological college. In Bede's time the disci- 
pline established by St. Columba still survived at Iona. Here and elsewhere the 
priests were denominated, not monks, but culdees, from a Celtic term still in use, 
which signifies merely a person given to retirement and solitary meditation. The 
introduction of the papal rule eventually substituted everywhere for the culdees some 
order of regular monks. At Iona the successors of Columba, after some centuries 
of undisturbed tranquillity, which their noted learning and sanctity procured for 
them, notwithstanding the continual contests of the barbarous and ferocious tribes by 
which they were surrounded, were at last, in the year 807, driven from their ancient 
shelter by an incursion of the Danes, those unscrupulous pirates, whom even the 
cross rarely deterred when a booty worth the seizing tempted them on. After this 
the place remained for many years untenanted — till it was again taken possession of 
by a detachment of monks of the order of St. Benedict, from the famous abbey of 
Cluny, who occupied it till the reformation. After the isle of Man ceased to be a part 
of the Scottish dominions, the church of Iona was the cathedral of the bishop of the 
Isles ; and that dignity it retained till the establishment of presbyterianism. This 
and the other sacred buildings, however, which once existed on the island, were, ac- 
cording to the common account, reduced very nearly to the ruined state in which 
they now remain, at the era of the reformation. 

The principal monuments of the past which are yet to be seen at Iona are the 
ruins of the cathedral church of St. Mary, of a nunnery, of five chapels, and of a 
building called the Bishop's house. Of these buildings, the most ancient is, beyond 
all doubt, much more recent than the time of Columba. His erection was probably 
of wattles, the material then generally used for building in this country. Of the ex- 
isting remains, Dr. M'Culloch, who published a description of the Western isles in 



ANTIQUITIES. 



497 




"32" 



498 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

1819, is of opinion that that called St. Oran's chapel is the most ancient: anr" it 
may, perhaps be referred to the Saxon age- Next to this edifice, in point of antiquity, 
may be reckoned the nunnery. The arches here are also round ; and the foundation 
of the building may probably be referred to a period beyond the twelfth century. 
The most extensive ruin is that of the church of which our engraving gives a repre- 
sentation. It is in the form of a cross, surmounted at the intersection of the nave 
and the transept by a square lower of about seventy feet in height. The length of 
the transept is seventy feet, and that of the body of the church, from east to west, 
one hundred and twenty feet. Of this building, the part to the eastward of the tower 
is apparently the most ancient ; and it may probably be assigned to the thirteenth 
centurv. The arches are pointed, and the shafts of the pillars are cylindrical and 
plain, as they are usually found to be in buildings of the Norman age. The great 
window in the eastern gable of this church has been much admired. For a more 
minute description of the different buildings, the reader may consult Dr. Johnson's 
Journey to the Hebrides. When Dr. Johnson was here in 1773, the chapel of the 
nunnery was used as a cowhouse, and was covered to the depth of several feet with 
dung. The doctor, accompanied by his friend Boswell, and their host, Mr. Maclean, 
during the night they spent in Iona, lay together in a barn, on straw, with their 
oortmanteaus for their pillows. 

The monuments of the dead with which this sacred soil was formerly crowded, 
and many vestiges of which still remain, are perhaps more interesting than the di- 
lapidated walls which rise in the midst of them. Forty-eight kings of Scotland, four 
of Ireland, and eight of Norway, are said, to have been buried in Iona, in three sepa- 
rate enclosures, each bearing a Latin inscription, intimating to which class of the 
illustrious dead it was appropriated. These inscriptions seem to have been legible 
in Buchanan's days; but they are now wholly obliterated, and the royal cemetery 
indeed is reduced to a few slight ridges formed by some broken arches built under 
the ground. It is known by the name of the Ridge of Kings. Of the other tombs 
most of the inscriptions are in Saxon characters ; but Dr. M'Culloch states that 
there are also a few in which the Celtic language and alphabet are used, though 
among these he could discover none with dates. Among the ornamental sculptures 
the most interesting which he observed were some ancient ships. 

Roslin castle is in the parish of Lasswade, a few miles south from Edinburgh ; 
and it stands on the north bank of the river called the North Esk, on a rock which 
overhangs the stream, and at a point where it makes a sharp turn and pursues its 
course for a moment, with something of the dash and hurry of a cataract. Hence, 
according to one etymology, the name Roskely, from the Gaelic Ross, a promontory 
or jutting rock, and Lyn, a waterfall, the rock of the waterfall. Others, however, 
derive it from another compound Roskely, signifying the rock in the glen ; and this 
is also strikingly descriptive of the position of the castle, which stands in the hollow 
of a valley, and is surrounded on all sides by hills. The situation is in the highest 
degree romantic and beautiful, the wood in the bosom of which the castle stands ex- 
tending to the water's edge, while masses of the richest foliage cover in almost every 
direction the brows and summits of the surrounding heights. The castle itself is 
now a mere ruin, consisting of little more than a few fragments of masonry, which 
project their gray and ragged tops from the midst of the trees, the time-shattered 
work of man making a fine though melancholy contrast with the fresh and ever- 
springing green of nature. There wave the old, but yet strong and leafy boughs ; 
beside them runs the river along its rocky bed : — 

•■ 'Twill murmur on a thousand years, 
And How as now it flows:" 

but the home of ancient state is stripped bare of all that once adorned it, nor roof 
nor floor remains of the spacious halls and gilded chambers that were wont to lodge 
their troops of retainers and guests, and to ring with their festive revelry. And they 
who tenanted them are still more utterly passed away ; man's works are perishable, 
but he himself is of still briefer date. The old lords of Roslin are supposed to have 
had a baronial residence on this spot from the eleventh century, when they first came 
into possession of the property ; but the original castle was burnt to the ground in 
1554 by the English forces, which in that year attacked the Scottish capital and 
ravaged the surrounding country. The building, of which the ruins now remain, 
seems to have been nearly all erected since that disaster. In the old castle, William 



ANTIQUITIES. 



499 




500 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

St. Clair, the baron of Roslin, who among other titles bore those of earl of Caithness 
and prince of the Orkneys, is recorded to have lived in a style rivalling the magnifi- 
cence of royal state. The following is the description of his housekeeping given bv 
an old writer: "He kept a great court, and was royally served at his own table in 
vessels of gold and silver : Lord Dirleton being his master-household, Lord Borth- 
wick his cup-bearer, and Lord Hereing his carver; in whose absence they hajJ 
deputies to attend ; viz., Stewart, Laird of Drumlanrig ; Tweddie, Laird of Drumer- 
line, and Sandilands, Laird of Calder. He had his' halls, and other apartments 
richly adorned with embroidered hangings. He flourished in the reigns of James I., 
and II. His princess, Elizabeth Douglas, was served by seventy-five gentlewomen, 
whereof fifty-three were daughters of noblemen, all clothed in velvet and silks, with 
their chains of gold, and other ornaments ; and was attended by two hundred riding 
gentlemen in all her journeys ; and, if it happened to be dark when she went to 
Edinburgh, where her lodgings were at the foot of the Black Friars' Wynd, eighty 
lighted torches were carried before her." It was this splendid feudal chief (who 
flourished in the middle of the fifteenth century) that erected the exquisitely beautiful 
chapel which stands in the neighborhood of Roslin castle. 

Tantallon, or, as it is often called, Tamtallon castle, stands on the coast of the 
German ocean, about two miles and a half east from the town of North Ber- 
wick, in the county of Haddington, otherwise called East Lothian, Scotland. Of 
the early history of this extensive ruin, but little is known. Grose, who has given 
two views of it in his " Antiquities of Scotland," was not able to discover when 
or by whom it was built, after searching all the authorities within his reach ; and 
the late Mr. George Chalmers, the learned author of the " Caledonia," was equally 
unsuccessful. There is no doubt, however, that the fortress was one of the most 
ancient, as it was always considered one of the strongest, in Scotland. 

It occupies the summit of an eminence, terminating in a precipitous rock toward 
the sea, into which it projects so far that, on three of its sides, it is wholly sur- 
rounded by the water. On the fourth side, which looks toward the land, it has been 
guarded by strong outworks, and two ditches, the inner one of which has been of 
great depth. Its shape has been somewhat irregular, but semi-hexagonal in its 
general outline. What now remains is principally a long stretch of ragged wall, 
surmounted by the fragment of a tower, whose weather-beaten front, frowning ovei 
the waves, presents an aspect peculiarly desolate and melancholy. 

From the earliest date to which its history can be traced, Tantallon castle was a 
stronghold of the family of Douglas ; and it makes a principal figure in the history 
of the contests of that turbulent and aspiring house witfi their sovereign, from the 
middle of the fifteenth to the middle of the sixteenth cerilury. In 1455, the barony 
of North Berwick, along with Tantallon castle, was forfeited by the earl of Douglas 
to the crown ; but about twenty-five years afterward these possessions were restored 
by James III. to the famous Archibald Bell-the-Cat, the sixth earl cf Angus, who, 
in return, afterward headed the rebellion which cost the unfortunate monarch his 
throne and his life. Soon after the battle of Flodden, where James IV. was killed, 
the earl married his widow, and in this way got into his possession her son, James 
V., whom he retained in close confinement till the year 1527, when the young king 
at last contrived to elude his jailer. On this event Douglas took refuge in his castle 
of Tantallon, and collected there a band of the trustiest of his retainers. From this 
retreat James immediately prepared to dislodge him ; and an old Scottish historian, 
Lindsey of Pittscottie, has given us a detailed history of the attempt, which 
curiously illustrates the feeble resources of the Scottish monarchy in those days, 
when the crown as yet held its precarious supremacy only by an incessant struggle 
with the barons or great landed proprietors of the kingdom. James, Lindsey tells 
us, commenced operations by making proclamation to all the neighboring counties, 
Fife, Angus, Strathern, Stirling, Lothian, the Merse, and Tiviotdale, to compear at 
Edinburgh on the tenth of December, every man bringing with him forty days' 
victuals, to pass along with the king in person to the siege of the castle. Having 
collected his forces, he next sent to the castle of Dunbar to borrow from the duke of 
Albany " two great cannons, thrawn mouthed Mow and her marrow, with two great 
bot-cards, and two moyans, two double falcons, and four quarter falcons, with their 
powder and bullets, and gunners for to use them." He at the same time "caused 
three lords to pass in pledge for the said artillery till it were delivered again." Bui 
guns, ammunition, and engineers, were all to no purpose ; they carried on the siege 



ANTIQUITIES. 



501 




502 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

for twenty days, " but," continues the historian, " they came no speed ; whether the 
castle was so strong, or the gunners corrupted by the earl of Angus's moyen, I can 
not tell." The king, then, having lost many men and horses, resolved to retire to 
Edinburgh ; but still anxious to obtain possession of the fortress, he opened a 
negotiation with the captain of the garrison, Simeon Pannango ; and at length, by 
very liberal promises of favor both to himself and his men, induced him to surren- 
der it. " Shortly after," concludes Lindsey, " the king gart garnish it with men #f 
war and artillery, and put in a new captain, to wit, Oliver Sinclair; and caused 
masons to come and ranforce the walls, which were left waste before as trances 
and thorow-passages, and made all massy work, to the effect that it should be more 
able in time coming to any enemies that would come to pursue it." It is a tradition 
among the soldiers, Grose tells us, that what is called the Scotch March was com- 
posed for the troops going to this siege, and that the tune was intended to express 
the words Ding down Tantallon. Scott, in the introduction to his " Minstrelsy of 
the Border," has noticed the phrase, " To ding down Tantallon, and make a bridge 
to the Bass," as an old adage expressive of impossibility. The lofty rock called the 
Bass, lying two miles out at sea, is a conspicuous object from Tantallon castle and 
the neighboring coast. 

The castle was subjected, in the course of the seventeenth century, to two other 
attacks, which it did not stand so well as it had done that directed against it by 
James V. In 1639, being then in the possession of the marquis of Douglas, it was 
taken by the Covenanters, and dismantled. The injuries it sustained upon this 
occasion, however, appear to have been soon after repaired, for in the close of the 
year 1650, when it was held by the marquis as one of the supporters of the royal 
cause, it again stood out, for a short time, an assault made upon it by General Monk, 
who, after the taking of the castle of Edinburgh by Cromwell, was despatched to 
reduce that of Tantallon, with three regiments of horse and foot. After playing 
against it with mortars for forty-eight hours, Monk found that he had made little 
or no impression on it. He is stated to have then applied his battering-guns, and 
by this means he soon forced the garrison to surrender at discretion. After this the 
castle was reduced to ruins ; and in that state it has remained ever since. Some 
time after the Restoration it was sold, along with the Bass, by the marquis of Doug- 
las, to Sir Hugh Dalrymple ; in the possession of whose representative both still 
continue. 

Stirling, anciently Striveling, was in former times one of the most important 
towns, in a military point of view, in the Scottish realm. From its position on the 
Forth it was the key to the Highlands — " the bulwark of the north" — as Scott has 
called it in his " Lady of the Lake." It stands on the south bank of that river, and 
used to command the only bridge by which it was crossed. The situation of the 
place in its general features very much resembles that of Edinburgh. Both towns are 
seated on the south bank of the Forth, and each occupies an eminence, rising by a 
gradual ascent from the east, and terminating at the opposite extremity in a pre- 
cipitous rock, ihe summit of which is crowned by the fort or castle. The natural 
battlement, however, on which the castle of Stirling stands, is the higher of tin* 
two, being about 350 feet above the level of the sea, while the other is not quite 
three hundred. 

Stirling has been called the Windsor of Scotland ; and it has some pretensions to 
that appellation. The view from the castle is of vast extent, and comprehends the 
richest variety both of the beautiful and the grand in natural scenery. Toward the 
west the prospect is bounded by the solitary Ben Lomond, rising in the sky, at the 
distance of about thirty miles, to the height of above three thousand feet. The in- 
tervening space is a level valley, through which the Forth is seen stealing its way 
with a thousand meanderings. Round the northern horizon sweeps the almost con- 
tinuous chain of the Grampians. To the south lie the green hills of Campsie ; 
turning round from which toward the east the eye rests on a plain of rich and cul- 
tivated beauty, with the sister towers of the capital cresting the distance, and be- 
tween, the broad and fertile plains of Carron on the one hand, and on the other 
"the mazy Forth unravelled" in a succession of beautiful windings, till it spreads 
out from a slender stream into a great arm of the sea. Some idea of the singular 
manner in which the river lingers over this part of its course, may be formed from 
the fact that it travels over about twenty-four miles in making its way through a 
space not more than six miles in length. The innumerable green peninsulas, of 



ANTIQUITIES. 



503 




504 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

every variety of shape and dimension, which it forms in its sportive progress, pre- 
sent a picture which certainly has not often been surpassed in bright and animated 
biauty. 

Grey Stirling, with her towers and towns, is unquestionably a place of very high 
antiquity. The oldest existing charter of the burgh is dated in 1120 ; but it appears 
to be a confirmation of former grants, and there can be no doubt that the fort at 
least was of importance a considerable time before this. The first mention which 
historians have made of it is in the ninth century, about the middle of which it is 
recorded to have been taken and thrown down by Kenneth II. the king of the High- 
lands of Scotland, when he overcame the Picts whose principal fortress it was, and 
that which guarded the most exposed extremity of their territory. The whole of 
the south of Scotland as far as Stirling, however, appears soon after this to have fallen 
into the possession of the two chiefs, Osbriglit, or Osbert, and Ella, who, under the 
weak sway of the English king, Ethelred I., had seized upon the sovereignty of 
Northumberland ; and they rebuilt the castle as a protection to their new conquests.* 
In thu next century we find it again in the hands of the Scots. It was afterward 
repeatedly attacked, and taken both by the English, and by the several factions 
whose contentions continued to distract Scotland with little intermission during 
nearly all the time it remained an independent kingdom. But even to enumerate 
all the sieges it sustained would lead us far beyond our present limits. The last 
time it was attacked was by the Highlanders in the rebellion of 1745, when it was 
successfully defended by the governor, old General Blakeney throughout a siege of 
several weeks. 

Stirling appears to have become a royal residence about the middle of the twelfth 
century ; but probably none of the present buildings of the castle are older than the 
middle of the fifteenth, when James I., on his return from his long but fortunate de- 
tention in England, made this place his principal royal seat. Its resemblance to 
Windsor, where, captive although he was, he had passed the happiest years of his 
life, and his affection for which he has himself celebrated with so much tenderness 
in his " Quair," is supposed to have been one of the principal motives of his par- 
tiality. H*is son and successor, James II., was born here; and one of the still- 
existing apartments in the castle is renowned as the scene of a deed of bloody 
ferocity perpetrated by this monarch. The powerful family of the Douglases had 
been for many years the chief source of disturbance in the kingdom, and had indeed 
shown on various occasions nothing short of a determination to dispute the pos- 
session of the supreme authority with the reigning house. The laws of honorable 
warfare were probably but little regarded on either side in that savage age ; and in 
a contest especially waged for so high a prize as was here at stake, it was to be ex- 
pected that men's passions should be maddened to a readiness for any excess. In 
the year 1440, William earl of Douglas, a youth of sixteen, with his brother, was 
allured into the castle of Edinburgh, and there basely murdered. While the un- 
suspecting victims of treachery were seated at table, a boar's head, the well-known 
intimation that their lives were forfeited, was placed before them, and they were 
forthwith led, first to a mock trial, and thence to the block. There is much force 
and even a sort of rude sublimity in the old rhythmical malediction which refers to 
this deed, and used probably to be muttered afterward as an incentive to vengeance 
by the adherents of the slaughtered noblemen : — 

" Edinburgh castle, town, and tower, 
God grant thou sink for sin, 
And that even for the black dinour 
Earl Douglas gat therein!" 

The possessions of the family, however, were not taken from them on this occasion, 
but were bestowed upon an uncle of the late earl. It was William, the son of this 
uncle, who met with his bloody fate in Stirling castle. He had raised an army and 
formed a confederacy of the nobility with the avowed intention of setting at de- 
fiance the royal authority. On this the king invited him to come to Stirling that 
they might settle the matters of dispute between them peaceably in a personal con- 
ference. The promise of a safe convoy induced the earl to trust his person within 
the royal castle. At first he was treated with all hospitality and apparent kindness. 

* The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Nortbumbria, or Bernicia, extended from the Humber to the 
Forth. 



ANTIQUITIES. 



505 




506 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

James then led him to his private closet, and they entered into conversation. By 
degrees their altercation grew warmer, James insisting that Douglas should dissolve 
his rebellious confederacy, while the latter steadily refused to obey the command. 
At last the king, rising from his seat in fury, exclaimed, grasping his dagger as he 
spoke, " If you will not break this league, I shall, 1 ' — and instantly plunged the 
weapon in the earl's heart. The apartment in which this murder was perpetrated 
is still known by the name of the Douglas' 1 Room. It is in the northwest corner of 
the castle, in the suite of rooms which anciently formed part of the royal residence, 
and are now occupied by the fort-major. Some years ago a skeleton was found in a 
cleft of the rock immediately under the window of this room, which was supposed 
to have been that of the unfortunate earl. 

One of the buildings in the castle is called the palace, being a quadrangular edi- 
fice, with a small court in the centre. It was built by James V. Here is a room de- 
signated the king's room, or the presence, the roof of which was formerly adorned 
with a series of carvings in wood, in the very highest style of art. About half a cen- 
tury ago one or two of these ornaments fell ; and the incident was taken advantage 
of to pull down the roof altogether, and to convert the hall into a barrack. Some 
years ago, however, a few of the old figures, after passing through various hands, 
fell under the notice of Mrs. Maria Grahame, a lady well qualified to appreciate their 
merit, and she immediately took means to collect together as many more of them as 
could be recovered. Engravings of those that could be found were made from her 
drawings, and published at Edinburgh, in 1817. The figures are all of them full of 
grace and spirit, and, considered as the productions of so remote an age, are alto- 
gether wonderful. Nor are they less interesting in another point of view ; for there 
is every reason to believe that they are not fancy sketches, but resemblances taken 
from living originals. The countenances of James I. and his queen, Jane Beaufort, 
of James IV. and his queen, Margaret Tudor, of James V. and his second wife, Mary 
of Guise, as well as a few others, have been identified among those that remain. 

The ground immediately around the castle, and which is walled in as a royal park, 
contains various monuments of antiquity. Among them is an eminence, on the 
northeast, where criminals used to be executed, alluded to in the " Lady of the Lake," 
in the speech put into the mouth of Douglas as he makes his way up the rock : 

" Ye towers ! within whose circuit dread 
A Douglas by his sovereign bled; 
And thou, O sad and fatal mound ! 
That oft has heard the death-axe sound, 
As on the noblest of the land 
Fell the stern headsman's bloody hand!" 

Here also is the round table, where it is said that tournaments were anciently held, 
with the adjoining seat from which the dames of the court viewed the contest, still 
distinguished by the name of the Ladies' Rock. This, too, is introduced by Scott : — 

" The vale with loud applauses rang, 

The Ladies' Rock sent back the clang," &c. 

And so frequently in ancient times was the country in the neighborhood of this im- 
portant fortress the scene of the meeting of hostile armies, that no fewer than twelve 
battle-fields are pointed out from the summit of the rock — the glorious field of Ban- 
nockburn, the Marathon of Scotland, among the rest. 

Numerous specimens of the towers and castles occupied by men of note in the 
middle ages still exist, though mostly in a decayed state. Those which indicate the 
greatest strength and consequence are — Lochmaben castle, the residence of the 
Bruces, lords of Annandale ; Hermitage (Roxburghshire), which belonged to a pow- 
erful noble named Lord Soulis ; Douglas, the residence of the earls of Douglas ; 
Turnberry (Ayrshire), the residence of the earls of Carrick ; Bothwell, another 
stronghold of the Douglases ; Tantallon (Haddingtonshire), the residence of the 
earls of Angus, a branch of the Douglas family ; Dunnottar (Kincardineshire), the 
seat of the Earls Mareschal ; and Doune (Perthshire), the stronghold of Robert, earl 
of Fife, brother of Robert III., and governor of Scotland. Four places of strength — 
Edinburgh, Stirling, Dunbarton, and Blackness castles — are still kept in repair at the 
public expense, and serve as barracks for foot soldiers. 



CHIEF TOWNS. 507 

CHAPTER X L I V. 

MANSIONS. 

The mansions of the nobility and gentry of Scotland do not differ in any important 
respect from similar classes of structures in England. The " hall" is, however, com- 
pletely wanting in Scotland, and there are comparatively few specimens of the Eliz- 
abethan style. Turbulent times being more recent in Scottish than in English his- 
tory, the chief mansions of an unfortified character in the northern kingdom are not 
of earlier date than the reign of Charles II., and most of them are much later. In 
many instances, the whole or part of the original castellated buildings which stood 
on the same site are retained. 

Before the reign of James III. (1460- '88), there seems to have been no mansion 
besides the regular tower, with its surrounding inferior buildings, and external wall 
or barmkyne. In that, and one or two of the ensuing reigns, a few mansions were 
built, in an ornamental style, having, for instance, an elegant front looking inward 
to a quadrangular court; yet, in these instances, the outside of the building was still 
a plain and almost dead wall, calculated for defence. Crichton castle (Edinburgh- 
shire) and Linlithgow palace are examples. In the reign of James VI., the favorite 
style was the tall square tower ; but this was now rendered somewhat more orna- 
mental by means of sundry flourishes, such as minor towers projecting like pepper- 
boxes from the corners. Glammis castle (Forfarshire) is a superb specimen of this 
class of mansions. 

In the reign of Charles II., mansions were for the first time built in anything like 
pure Grecian taste. This was introduced by Sir William Bruce, of Kinross, baronet, 
an architect of considerable skill, and of whose works the modern Holyrood palace, 
and his own house of Kinross, are examples. During the last century, the mansions 
built in Scotland have partaken of all the changes of taste passing through England, 
from the heavy barrack-like structures of Sir John Vanburgh, to the light and elegant 
Grecian style of Adam. We have now chateaux in the style of the middle ages 
(Gordon castle, Banffshire, and Colzean, in Ayrshire) ; Grecian structures by Adam 
(Hopetoun house, Linlithgowshire) ; mansions in the Doric and more sombre Gre- 
cian style since introduced (Hamilton palace, a superb example) ; and, very lately, a 
few specimens in the priory and Elizabethan styles. 



CHAPTER XLV. 

CHIEF TOWNS. 

Edinburgh, the capital, is situated in the county of the same name, on a cluster 
of eminences, distant between one and a half and three miles from the Firth of Forth. 
The city is composed of two principal parts, the Old and New Towns, the former 
being built on a long narrow eminence gently rising toward the west, where it ter- 
minates in a lofty and abrupt rock, on which the castle is situated, while the latter 
occupies lower ground toward the north. The town is universally built of a fair 
sandstone, which retains its original color in the newer parts of the town and in the 
best public buildings, and forms one of the most important features of Edinburgh. 

The New Town is laid out on a regular plan of rectangular streets and squares, 
exhibiting in general much architectural elegance. Between the Old and New 
Towns, and between various sections of the New Town itself, as well as in the cen- 
tres of the principal squares, there are gardens laid out in the modern landscape 
style, forming delightful places of recreation. It is chiefly owing to the unequal 



50S 



DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 




CHIEF TOWNS. £99 

ground on which Edinburgh is situated, the massive elegance and regularity of its 
buildings, the intermixture of ornamental pleasure-ground, and the picturesque hills 
immediately adjacent, whence distant and extensive prospects are commanded, that 
this city makes so great an impression on most strangers. 

Formerly the seat of the government of the country, Edinburgh is still that of the 
supreme law courts and of a flourishing university. It is also to a great extent a 
city of residence, not only for affluent persons connected with the country, but for 
strangers desirous of enjoying a society of moderate habits, and the benefits of edu- 
cation for their children. Its leading classes are thus composed of legal practition- 
ers, learned persons, and families in independent circumstances. It is only in a small 
degree a manufacturing town, the principal trades being the brewing of ale (for 
which the town is celebrated), coachmaking, the weaving of shawls, and the print- 
ing and issuing of literary productions. The leading periodical publications are the 
well-known Edinburgh Review, Blackwood's and Tait's magazines, and a Philo- 
sophical and Medical Journal, besides which there are a number of smaller size. 
The town is distinguished for its numerous banking institutions, which exert an in- 
fluence on the general trade of the country. Within a few miles of the city, on the 
Esk river, there are various paper-mills, at which vast quantities of paper are made, 
both for the home trade and for exportation to London. A railway in course of exe- 
cution to Glasgow is expected to prove of great benefit to both cities. 

Among the remarkable objects in the city, the most striking is the castle, a large 
fortress romantically situated on the summit of a mass of igneous rock, between two 
and three hundred feet in sheer height. It contains, besides various batteries and 
other fortifications, an ancient palace, in which Queen Mary was delivered of her 
son James I., of Great Britain, and a modern barrack, in which a foot regiment is 
usually quartered. In a well-protected room, are shown the crown, sceptre, mace, 
and sword, which formed the regalia of the Scottish line of princes. The courts of 
law are situated in the centre of the old town, and are composed of a great hall, for- 
merly the meeting-place of the Scottish parliament, rooms for the two various divis- 
ions of the civil court and for the lords ordinary, a room for the high court of justi- 
ciary (supreme criminal court), and other accommodations. The extensive libraries 
belonging respectively to the advocates (barristers) and writers to the Signet (solici- 
tors), are adjacent. Holyrood house, the palace of the Scottish kings, is situated at 
the lower extremity of the principal street of the Old Town. The oldest part is a 
mass of building erected by James V., containing the presence-chamber, bedroom, 
and other apartments, used by Queen Mary, with some of the original furniture ; 
as also a gallery, furnished with (generally imaginary) portraits of the kings of 
Scotland. The apartments of the queen are to be regarded with no ordinary inter- 
est, both as furnishing a curious and faithful memorial of the domestic accommoda- 
tions of a princess of the sixteenth century, and on account of that extraordinary in- 
cident, the murder of David Rizzio, which took place within them. Another part 
of the building, erected in the reign of Charles II., contains the apartments used by 
George IV. for his levee in 1822, and a suite of rooms which furnished accommoda- 
tion to Charles X., of France, and his family, during the years 1831, '32, '33. Closely 
adjoining to the palace, are the ruins of a Gothic church, originally that of the ab- 
bey of Holyrood, and latterly a chapel-royal. 

The college is a large modern quadrangular building, in the southern quarter of 
the city. It contains class-rooms for the professors (thirty-three in number), a library 
of splendid proportions and decoration, and an extensive museum of natural his- 
tory. The university is chiefly distinguished as a school of medicine ; but it is also 
the means of preparing a great number of the native youth for the professions of law 
and divinity. The Register house is a beautiful building, planned by Adam, in a 
conspicuous part of the New Town : it contains the records connected with the legal 
business of the country. The Royal institution is the general appellation of an ele- 
gant building facing the centre of Princes street, and containing halls for various 
public bodies, as the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Antiquarian Society of Scot- 
land, the Scottish academy of painting and sculpture, and an academy for instruction 
in drawing. Of places of worship, the most remarkable are St. Giles's church in 
the Old town (once the cathedral), a Gothic building of the fifteenth century, lately 
renovated ; the Trinity college church, also a Gothic building, founded by the queen 
of James II. of Scotland ; St. George's, St. Stephen's, and St. Andrew's, modern 
churches of the establishment; and St. Paul's and St. John's, elegant Gothic chapels 



sn 



DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 



i ii 1 , V ' ' 




CHIEF TOWNS. 61] 

of the episcopalian body. There are two Roman catholic chapels, and many dis- 
senting places of worship. Of the other public buildings, the most remarkable are 
the Infirmary ; the hospitals for the maintenance and education of poor children, of 
which Heriot's is the most elegant; the Surgeons' and Physicians' halls ; and the 
offices of the bank of Scotland and Royal bank. On the Calton hill are siluaied 
some other public structures, as the county jail and Bridewell, monuments to Nelson, 
Dugald Stewart, and Professor Playfair, an astronomical observatory, and a small 
portion of a building designed as a national monument to the Scotchmen who per- 
ished in the last war, but which will probably never be completed. The population 
of Edinburgh in 1831, was one hundred and thirty-six thousand three hundred and 
one. 

Leith, the seaport town of Edinburgh, and recently constituted an independent 
parliamentary burgh, is situated at the efflux of the rivulet of the same name, which 
originally constituted its harbor. The older part of the toAvn is crowded and mean, 
but in the outskirts there are some good streets. The town is connected with Edin- 
burgh by a broad and beautiful road, above a mile in length, denominated Leith 
walk. Besides the quays skirting the embouchure of the river, there is a range of 
wet-docks ; but the harbor, after vast efforts to improve it, continues to labor under 
several strong natural disqualifications. During spring tides, the utmost depth of 
water on the bar at the mouth of the river is seventeen feet — during neap tides, four- 
teen feet ; and it is rarely that a vessel of four hundred tons can gain admission. The 
want of deep water at Leith is partly supplied by a harbor at Newhaven, a stone- 
pier at Granton, and a chain-pier at Trinity, which serve as places of embarkation 
and debarkation for steamers and other vessels devoted chiefly to passengers. The 
chief foreign trade of Leith is with the ports in the Baltic and north of Europe ; 
next to this in importance ranks its intercourse with the "West Indies. But the im- 
ports of Leith are chiefly for local consumption, and bear little reference to the great 
manufacturing business of the country. For the coasting trade there are various 
companies, each of which has several vessels in employment. Among the ports 
with which regular intercourse is carried on by steam, may be mentioned London, 
Hull, Newcastle, Aberdeen, and Rotterdam. The tonnage belonging to Leith is on 
the decline : it was, in 1826, 25,674 ; in 1832, 23,094 ; in 1835, 22,073. The amount 
of tonnage which entered the harbor in 1835 was 340,540. The gross amount of cus- 
tomhouse duties in 1834 was 386,905/. In Leith there are several breweries, a su- 
gar-refining establishment, and several manufactories of soap, candles, ropes, and 
glass. The customhouse, an elegant modern building, is the seat of the board of 
customs for Scotland. In 1831 the population of Leith was twenty-five thousand 
eight hundred and fifty five. The town, in union with Newhaven, Portobello, and 
Musselburgh, returns a member to parliament. 

Glasgow, the most populous city in Scotland, occupies a highly advantageous sit- 
uation on the banks of the Clyde, in Lanarkshire, a few miles from the place where 
the river expands into an estuary, forty-two miles from Edinburgh, three hundred 
and ninety-seven from London, and one hundred and ninety-six from Dublin. The 
external appearance of this great city is elegant and impressive. The streets are 
regular in arrangement, and substantially built of smooth stone. The public build- 
ings are in general handsome, and, in most instances, disposed in such a manner as 
to be seen to advantage. The more ancient part of the city extends along the line 
of the High street, between the cathedral and the river; the more modern and ele- 
gant part stretches toward the northwest. On the left bank of the river, and con- 
nected by three bridges, is situated the populous barony of Gorbals, bearing the same 
reference to Glasgow which Southwark bears to London. Westward from the low- 
est of the bridges, both sides of the river are formed into quays, which, owing to 
recent operations for deepening the channel, are now approached by vessels drawing 
about fourteen or fifteen feet water. The quay on the right or north bank is de- 
nominated Broomielaw ; it has recently been extended to three thousand three hun- 
dred and forty feet in length, while that on the south bank is one thousand two hun- 
dred and sixty feet. 

Glasgow took its rise as a dependency of the cathedral of the bishops (latterly 
archbishops) of the see bearing its name. It was not, however, till long after the 
reformation, that it became a seat of considerable population. About the middle of 
the eighteenth century, it had acquired a considerable share of the import colonial 
trade, which it still retains; but, during the last seventy years it has chiefly been 



512 



DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 




CHIEF TOWNS. 



513 




514 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

distinguished as a seat of manufactures. The weaving of lawns, cambrics, and 
similar articles, commenced in Glasgow in 1725. The advantages enjoyed by the 
city for the importation of cotton, in time gave a great impulse to that species of 
manufacture. In 1834, out of one hundred and thirty-four cotton-factories existing 
in Scotland, one hundred belonged to Glasgow, and the importation of cotton into 
that port amounted to ninety-five thousand seven hundred and three bales. In the 
weaving of this material, upward of fifteen thousand power-looms, and thirty-two 
thousand hand-loom weavers, were at the same time employed by the manufacturers 
of Glasgow. Of calico-printing establishments there are upward of forty. It would 
be vain to attempt an exact enumeration of the less prominent features of the business 
carried on in Glasgow. The chief articles of importation, beside cotton, are sugar, 
rum, tea, tobacco, and timber. The chief articles manufactured or prepared, besides 
cotton goods, are sugar, soap, glass, iron, ropes, leather, chymical stuffs, and ma- 
chinery. There were recently seven native banks, and several branches of other 
banks. During a year extending from a certain period in 1839, to a certain period 
in 1840, five thousand four hundred and eighty-four vessels, of two hundred and 
ninety-six thousand three hundred and two tonnage, arrived at the Glasgow harbor; 
the customhouse revenue of 1839 was £468,975, and the harbor dues of the twelve- 
month ending August 31 of that year were £45,826. It is worthy of remark, that 
the Clyde was the first river in the elder hemisphere on which steam navigation was 
exemplified. A steam-vessel of three-horse power was set afloat on the river in 
January 1S12, by Mr. Henry Bell of Helensburgh ; and there were twenty such 
vessels on the Clyde before one had disturbed the waters of the Thames. In 1835 
there were sixty-seven steam-vessels, of six thousand six hundred and ninety-one 
aggregate tonnage, connected with Glasgow, eighteen of which plied to Liverpool, 
Belfast, Dublin, and Londonderry. Within the last few years, the city has become 
a great centre of the iron trade, this metal being produced in the neighborhood to an 
annual amount of not less than two hundred thousand tons. As a necessary con- 
sequence of the commerce and manufactures which flourish in Glasgow, the city has 
a vast retail trade in all the articles of luxury and necessity which are used by human 
beings. But no circumstance connected with Glasgow could give so impressive an 
idea of the height to which business has been carried in it, as the rapid advance and 
present great amount of its population. By the census of 1791, the inhabitants were 
66,578 ; and by the first government census in 1801, they were 77,385. But these 
numbers have been increased in 1811, 1821, and 1831, respectively to 110,749, 
147,043, and 202,426. As the increase is about 7,000 per annum, the present amount 
(1846) is supposed to be fully 320,000 — a mass of population which, at the time of 
the Union, could not have been dreamt of as likely ever to exist in any Scottish city. 

The cathedral, or high church, is situated in the northern outskirts of the city, 
near the upper extremity of the High street. The bulk of the existing building was 
constructed at the close of the twelfth century, in place of another which had been 
consecrated in 1136, but was destroyed by fire. It consists of a long nave and choir, 
a chapter-house projecting from the northeast angle, a tower and spire in the centre, 
and a crypt extending beneath the choir or eastern portion of the building. In the 
nave, termed the Outer High Kirk, was held the celebrated general assembly of the 
church, November, 1638, by which episcopacy was abolished and pure presbytery 
replaced — the first great movement in the civil war. 

The elevated ground, near the east end of the cathedral, has been formed into an 
ornamental place of sepulture, under the appellation of the Necropolis. Since 1831, 
the society of merchants, its proprietors, have expended the sum of £6,000 in laying 
out about twenty-four acres of ground in walks and shrubberies, and in connecting 
the spot with the opposite slope by means of a bridge across the intermediate rivulet. 
The taste manifested in the whole scheme and in its execution, is extremely credita- 
ble to the city. The walks, several miles in extent, command an extensive view of 
the neighboring country. They are skirted by numberless sepulchral plots and 
excavations, where already affection has been busy in erecting its " trail memorials," 
all of which, it may be mentioned, are fashioned according to certain regulations, 
with a view to general keeping and effect. 

The College buildings are situated on the east side of the High street, about half- 
way between the cathedral and the Trongate. They consist in a sort of double 
court ; the front which adjoins to the street being three hundred and thirty feet in 
length, and three stories in height. The whole edifice has a dignified and venerable 



CHIEF TOWNS. 



515 




516 



DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 



appearance. A large piece of ground behind the college is formed into a park or 
green, interspersed with trees and hedges, and always kept in grass, to be used by 
the students as a place of exercise or amusement. In ihe college there are appointed 
professors or teachers of about thirty branches of science, theology, and polite litera- 
ture. At the back of the interior court stands the modern Grecian building which 
contains the Hunterian Museum. This is a large collection of singular natural ob- 
jects, coins, metals, rare manuscripts, paintings, and relics of antiquity, originally 
formed by Dr. William Hunter, the celebrated anatomist, and bequeathed by him to 
this university, at which he received his education. While the college confers pro- 
fessional education, popular instruction is attainable, under unusually advantageous 
circumstances, through the medium of the Andersonian institution, an extensive 
school of science founded at the close of the last century, and connected with which 
there is a general museum, containing many curious objects, and constantly open to 
the public. 




Monument of John Knox, Glasgow. 



CHIEF TOWNS. 



517 




518 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

The most attractive modern building in Glasgow is the Royal exchange in Queen 
street, a most superb structure, erected in 1829, as a point of assemblage for the 
merchants in the western part of the city. The principal room is a large hall, sup- 
ported by a double row of columns, and used as a reading-room. The front of the 
exchange consists of a magnificent portico, surmounted by a cupola ; and, as the 
building is is#ated, the other sides are also of decorative architecture. Altogether, 
this building, supported by a set of very elegant domestic structures of similarly 
august proportions, impresses the mind of a stranger as something signally worthy 
of a great city. 

Since the reform act of 1832, Glasgow has the privilege of returning two members 
to parliament. The places of worship, charitable institutions, and associations of 
various kinds for public objects, are very numerous. A laudable zeal for the im- 
provement of education marks the city; and a normal school, or seminary for the 
rearing of teachers — the first in the empire — has been erected under the auspices of 
a private society. 

The means of communication in connexion with Glasgow, are suitable to the 
character of the city as one of the greatest emporia of commerce and manufacture 
in the world. Besides a river, navigable by vessels drawing fifteen feet of water, 
and which gives the means of a ready communication with the western shores of 
Britain, with Ireland, and with- America, the Forth and Clyde canal, of which a 
branch comes to Port-Dundas, in the northern suburbs, serves to convey goods and 
passengers to the eastern shores of the island, while canals of less note connect the 
city with Paisley and Johnstone in one direction, and with the great coal-fields of 
Monkland in the other. There is also a railway, which traverses the same great 
coal-field, by Garnkirk and Wishaw, and conveys passengers as well as coal and 
goods. Another railway, connecting the city with Kilmarnock, Ayr, and the port of 
Ardrossan, was opened in 1840. In 1841, a third railway, to Edinburgh, was 
opened, and others were projected. The steam communication between Glasgow and 
Liverpool, Dublin, and other Irish ports, is conducted on a scale which may be called 
grand. The vessels are superb in magnitude, decoration, and power ; and they sail 
frequently and rapidly. The steam intercourse between Glasgow and various places 
in Scotland, both for passengers and objects of traffic, is also conducted on a great 
scale: among the places touched at in the Clyde and to the south are Greenock, 
Dunbarton, Dunoon, Rothesay, Arran, Gourock, Troon, and Ayr. Among the places 
to the north to which vessels sail regularly, are Inverary, Campbelton, Oban, Staffa 
and Iona, Mull, Arisaig, Skye, Stornoway, and Inverness. In opening up markets 
for West Highland produce, and introducing luxuries in return, these vessels have 
also been of marked service, insomuch that the value of property in those hitherto 
secluded districts has experienced a considerable rise. 

The country around Glasgow, particularly toward the south, abounds in busy towns 
and villages, of the former of which the most remarkable is Paisley, situated in Ren- 
frewshire, on the banks of the small river Cart, seven miles from the city above de- 
scribed. The external appearance of this town is pleasing, and the streets are in 
general composed of substantial buildings. It originated from an abbey founded in 
1160 by Walter, the first of the Stewarts, and of which considerable remains still 
exist. Paisley is a noted seat of the manufacture of shawls, and also of cotton thread, 
gauzes, and velvets. In the town and abbey parish exclusive of the large village of 
Johnstone, there were lately three cotton spinning-mills, and seven or eight thread- 
mills ; two steam-loom factories ; six Hour-mills ; a calico-printing work ; many 
bleaching works and dye-houses ; three breweries and two distilleries ; several tim- 
ber-yards ; and several iron and brass foundries ; an alum and copperas work, a soap 
work, and a tan-yard. An idea of the present extent of manufactures, in comparison 
with what it was in the last age, may be obtained from the fact that, while the whole 
of the manufactures in 1760 amounted to fifteen thousand pounds, the annual com- 
puted value of the goods made in and around the town a few years ago was a million 
and a half sterling. 

Paisley has been changed by the reform acts from a burgh of barony into a parlia- 
mentary burgh of the first class, returning one member, divided into wards fur 
municipal purposes, and managed by sixteen councillors, including a provost, foui 
bailies, and a treasurer. Being, though not the county town, the seat of the sheriff 
court, it is adorned by a large modern castellated building, containing a jail, bride- 
well, and series of court-rooms ; but unfortunately the edifice is placed in a low situ- 



CHIEF TOWNS. 



519 




52J DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

alion, without reference to salubrity or external influences. Devoted as the inhabi- 
tants of Paisley are to the pursuits of business, they have long been honorably remark- 
able for a spirit of inquiry and a desire for intellectual improvement. The popula- 
tion of Paisley, like that of Glasgow, has experienced a very rapid advance: the 
inhabitants of the town and surrounding parochial district, in 1821, amounted to 
47,003 ; in 1831, to 57,466. 

Notwithstanding the inland situation of Paisley, its means of communication are 
unusually facile and ample. The White Cart, navigable from its efflux into the 
Clyde to the Sneddon in the outskirts of Paisley, presents all the advantages of a 
canal. A canal leaves the southern suburbs of Glasgow, and, passing Paisley, termi- 
nates at Johnstone. Paisley is also benefited by the Glasgow and Ayr railway, which 
passes it. 

In Renfrewshire, also, is situated Greenock, the greatest seaport of the kingdom, 
as far as customhouse receipts form a criterion, these having been, in 1834, £482,138 
in gross amount. This town occupies a strip of sloping ground facing toward the 
Firth of Clyde, at the distance of twenty-four miles from Glasgow. In the seven- 
teenth century it was a mere hamlet; now it is a handsome town of about 30,000 
inhabitants, containing harbors and quays of 2,200 feet in extent, to which belonged, 
in 1 828, two hundred and nineteen vessels, of 31,929 aggregate tonnage, and employ- 
ing 2210 men. It is now, moreover, by virtue of the reform acts, a parliamentary 
burgh of the first class, returning one member of parliament. The principal branches 
of commerce conducted in Greenock have reference to the East and West Indies, the 
United States, and British America, to which last it yearly sends out great numbers 
of emigrants. Sugar-baking and ship-building are other branches of industry carried 
on here to a great extent. The customhouse, fronting to the Firth of Clyde, is a 
beautiful Grecian building, erected in 1818, at an expense of thirty thousand pounds. 
The Tontine hotel, situated in one of the principal streets, and containing a large 
public room, twelve sitting-rooms, and thirty bed-rooms, was built, in 1801, by four 
hundred subscribers of twenty-five pounds each, the whole expense being thus ten 
thousand pounds. There is also an elegant building, in the character of an exchange, 
which cost seven thousand pounds, and contains, besides two spacious assembly rooms, 
a reading-room, to which strangers are admitted gratuitously for six weeks. In 
Greenock there are two native banks, besides branches of several others. 

James Watt, the improver of the steam-engine, was born in Greenock, in 1736 ; 
and an institution for literary and scientific purposes, designed to serve as a monu- 
ment to him, and termed the Watt institution, has been recently completed. The 
situation of the town, on the shore of a land-locked basin of the Firth of Clyde, with 
the mountains of Argyllshire and Dunbartonshire rising on the opposite side, is very 
fine. 

Among Scottish towns, Aberdeen ranks next to Edinburgh and Glasgow. It is 
situated in the county named from it, on a level piece of ground between the effluxes 
of the rivers Dee and Don, one hundred and ten miles from Edinburgh. Its external 
appearance produces a favorable impression ; the principal streets are straight and 
regular, and the buildings at once substantial and elegant, the chief material used in 
constructing them being a gray granite found here in great abundance. New Aber- 
deen, or what is now generally called Aberdeen, is close to the efflux of the Dee, the 
mouth of which forms its harbor ; and old Aberdeen, where the ancient cathedral 
and King's college are situated, is a comparatively small town, about a mile distant, 
on the bank of the Don. The entire population is about 60,000. 

Aberdeen is a city of great antiquity. It became the seat of a university by the 
erection of King's college, in Old Aberdeen, in 1495 ; Mareschal college, in New 
Aberdeen, was added in 1593. By the recent reform acts, it is a royal burgh of the 
first class, divided into districts for municipal purposes, and returning one member to 
parliament. Aberdeen is at once a seat of manufactures and a seaport. There are 
four great houses engaged in the cotton manufacture, two in the woollen trade, and 
three in flax-spinning and the weaving of linen. Ship-building, iron-founding, comb- 
making, rope-making, and paper-making, are also carried on to a great extent. The 
fisheries of the river Dee, and the export of granite, are sources of considerable in- 
come. Of the exports for the year 1836, we may notice, as indicating at once the 
extent and nature of the agricultural and manufacturing products of the district, the 
following items: Flax manufactures, thirty thousand four hundred and eighty-two, 
Barrel bulk ; cotton manufactures, sixteen thousand three hundred and thirty-six do. , 



CHIEF TOWNS. 521 

woollen manufactures, twenty thousand and forty-three do. ; oats, sixty-nine thousand 
two hundred and thirty-nine quarters ; meal, thirteen thousand three hundred and 
seventy-five bolls ; sheep and lambs, one thousand four hundred and seven ; pigs, 
three thousand and thirty-four ; butter, nine thousand two hundred and sixty-one 
hundred-weight ; eggs, eight thousand one hundred and twenty, barrel bulk ; pork, 
six thousand and six hundred-weight; salmon, seven thousand seven hundred aid 
fifty-seven do. ; granite stones, one thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight tens. 
The chief imports are — coal, of which there was unloaded, during the same year, 
three hundred and seventy-one thousand nine hundred and fourteen bolls ; lime, cot- 
ton, flax, wool, wood, wheat, flour, salt, iron, whale-blubber, and miscellaneous 
goods, consisting of groceries, &c. There were, in 1836, belonging to the port of 
Aberdeen, three hundred and sixty vessels, tonnage forty-two thousand and eighty, 
employing three thousand one hundred and ten men. 

Aberdeen is entered from the south by Union street, an elegant double line of 
buildings, a mile in length and seventy feet wide, in the centre of which a ravine 
pervaded by a rivulet is crossed by a noble arch of one hundred and thirty-two feet 
in span, upon a rise of twenty-two. King street, which opens up the city from the 
north, is sixty feet wide, and contains many splendid edifices. Besides these two 
main streets, there is a considerable number of modern squares and terraces. The 
public buildings are much scattered, but are generally of an elegant appearance. 
The Public Rooms, erected by the gentlemen of the counties of Banff, Aberdeen, 
Kincardine, and Forfar, for meetings, dancing assemblies, &c, and partly occupied 
as a reading-room, constitute a handsome Grecian structure, fronting to Union street. 
On the north side of Castle street stands the Town-House, and in the centre is the 
Cross, a curious structure re-erected in 1822, and containing sculptures of eight Scot- 
tish sovereigns between James I. and James VII. Mareschal college, formerly a 
plain old structure, has lately been re-edified in handsome style, chiefly at the ex- 
pense of the nation. King's college consists of a handsome but ill-assorted quadran- 
gle, surmounted by a fine tower and spire. The two colleges are attended by about 
five hundred students, nearly equally divided between them. In Old Aberdeen are 
also to be seen the remains of the cathedral, consisting of the nave of the original 
building, with two towers at the west end. The ceiling is composed of oak, cut out 
into forty-eight compartments, each displaying in strong colors the armorial bearings 
of some eminent person, whose name is given below in Latin, and in old Gothic 
character. 

Dundee, situated in Forfarshire, on the shore of the Firth of Tay, may be consid- 
ered as the fourth town in Scotland, whether in population, or in the importance con- 
ferred by wealth. It is a busy seaport, and the chief seat of the linen manufacture 
in Scotland, and indeed in Great Britain. A series of docks, the erection of which 
cost three hundred and sixty-five thousand pounds, extend along the shore where, a 
century ago, there was only a small quay in the form of a crooked wall. The dues 
collected for the harbor were, in 1839, fifteen thousand nine hundred and ninety-six 
pounds; the tonnage belonging to it, in 1839, was forty-four thousand eight hundred 
and eighty-two. In the year ending May 31, 1839, the quantity of hemp and flax 
imported was thirty-two thousand four hundred and sixty-two tons, and the number 
of pieces of sheeting, bagging, sailcloth, sacking, and dowlas, exported, was seven 
hundred and seventeen thousand and seventy, the value of which was about one 
million five hundred thousand pounds, being considerably greater than the entire ex- 
ports from Ireland. In 1839, the number of spinning-mills was forty-one, and of 
flax-mills (that is, mills for weaving) forty-seven ; besides which there are several 
machine-factories, candle-factories, sugar-refineries, and establishments for rope- 
making and ship-building. This great hive of industry contained, in 1831, a popu- 
lation of 45,355, to which it is probable that 20,000 have since been added. The 
town is represented in parliament by one member. 

Dundee contains one handsome place, denominated the High street, in the centre 
of the town, and several other good streets ; but the most elegant and commodious 
private dwellings take the form of suburban villas. There is a handsome modern 
building, serving the purposes of an exchange and reading-room ; besides which, the 
most conspicuous public buildings are the Town-House, and a building comprehen- 
sively called the Seminaries, containing an academy and grammar-school. The 
High Church of Dundee was an interesting building of the thirteenth century, with 
a massive tower one hundred and fifcy-six feet high ; but the whole structure, except- 



522 DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. 

ing the steeple, was destroyed by fire in January, 1841. Dundee is connected by rail- 
ways with Arbroath and Brechin on the one hand, and Newtyle on the other. It 
carries on a regular steam intercourse with London. 

Perth, the chief town of the county of the same name, is celebrated on account of 
its elegant appearance and the beautiful situation which it enjoys on the banks of the 
Tay, here a broad and majestic stream. Umbrella-cloths, ginghams, handkerchiefs, 
and shawls, are manufactured in Perth in considerable quantities, the number of 
weavers employed being sixteen hundred ; and there are a flax spinning-mill and an 
extensive bleachfield. The river being navigable to this place for small vessels, 
there is a harbor, chiefly for coasting trade. The salmon fisheries on the river are a 
source of considerable income : the fish are sent to London, in boxes, the number of 
which, in 1835, was five thousand, amounting to two hundred and fifty tons. Perth had 
in 1831, a population of 20,016, and it is represented by one member in parliament. 

The streets of Perth are generally rectangular, and well built of stone. The river 
is spanned by a substantial bridge, connecting the town with a small suburb on the 
other side, and forming part of the great north road. The town contains most of the 
public buildings found in places of similar character and magnitude : the ancient 
church of St. John, an elegant suite of county buildings, an academy, and town-hall, 
are those most entitled to notice within the town. In the environs, besides a lunatic 
asylum, there is a structure designed, when finished, to serve as a national reforma- 
tory for criminals. The beauty and salubrity of Perth are much enhanced by two 
beautiful pieces of adjacent public ground, respectively entitled the North Inch and 
South Inch. In the midst of a highly cultivated vale, pervaded by a great river, and 
with lofty mountains in the distance, Perth, especially when its own neat appearance 
is considered, may be said eminently to deserve its appellation of " the fair city." 

Dumfries, the principal town of Dumfries-shire (seventy-one miles from Edinburgh 
and thirty-four from Carlisle), enjoys a beautiful situation on the Nith, which is nav- 
igable to nearly this point for small vessels. Inclusive of a large suburb on the oppo- 
site side of the river, the population is about 14,000. Dumfries has a few small 
manufactures, but its chief importance rests in its character as a kind of provincial 
capital and seat of the county courts, and as an entrepot for the transmission of cattle 
and pork to the English market. Eighty-four vessels belong to the port, with an 
aggregate tonnage of 5783 ; and steam-vessels sail regularly to Liverpool. The town 
has a neat and clean appearance, has some handsome public buildings, and is the 
seat of considerable refinement. In St. Michael's churchyard repose the remains of 
Robert Burns, over which his admirers have reared a handsome mausoleum. 

Inverness (one hundred and fifty-five miles from Edinburgh) is the principal seat of 
population in the northern counties of Scotland. It is an ancient royal burgh, a sea- 
port for the export and import trade of the district, and the seat of the county courts. 
The situation on the river Ness, near its junction with the sea, with some picturesque 
eminences in the neighborhood, is one of great beauty, and the town itself is well 
built and remarkably clean. Inverness is often called the highland capital, being 
within the line of the Grampians, and the residence of many persons connected with 
that district. The population of the town and parish, in 1831, was 14,324. Among 
objects of interest may be enumerated — the remains of a fort built by Cromwell ; 
Craig-Phadric, an eminence crowned by a vitrified fort; and the moor of Culloden 
(distant five miles), the scene of the fatal battle which extinguished the hopes of the 
house of Stuart. 

The principal towns in Scotland next to those already enumerated, are — in Ayrshire, 
Kilmarnock, a prosperous seat of the coarser woollen manufacture — population about 
twenty thousand ; Ayr, the capital of the county, a thriving market-town, and in a 
small degree a seaport — population (including dependencies) about seventeen thou- 
sand ; in Stirlingshire, Stirling, the county town, remarkable chiefly for its castle, a 
favorite seat of the Scottish monarchs, and from which the most splendid views are 
commanded ; Falkirk, a busy market-town, and the centre of a district remarkable 
for its iron-foundries, particularly the celebrated one of Carron — population about 
seven thousand : in Fifeshire, Dunfermline, the principal seat of the manufacture of 
damasks, diapers, and similar fabrics — population about eighteen thousand ; Cupar, 
the county town ; Kirkaldy a busy manufacturing and seaport town ; St. Andrews, 
the seat of an ancient university : in Forfarshire, Montrose, and Arbroath, active 
seats of the linen trade, and likewise seaports : in Morayshire, Elgin, an ancient 
-oyal burgh, and county town. 



DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. 



CHAPTER XLVI 



GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION.— GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.— 

MINERALOGY. 

This large and important section of the United Kingdom is geographically de- 
scribed as an island situated to the west of Great Britain, from which it is divided 
by a strait, called at different places St. George's channel, the Irish sea, and North 
channel, the Atlantic forming the boundary on the other sides. Of a more compact 
form than Great Britain, it is nevertheless penetrated by a considerable number of 
deep bays and estuaries, which give it an outline upon the whole irregular. Be- 
sides enjoying this advantage for internal navigation, it may be considered as more 
favorably situated for foreign commerce than either England or Scotland. It lies 
between fifty-one degrees nineteen minutes and fifty-five degrees twenty-three min- 
utes north latitude, and five degrees nineteen minutes and ten degrees twenty-eight 
minutes of west longitude from Greenwich ; but the greatest length, from Brow- 
head in the county of Cork, to Fair-head in the county of Antrim, is three hundred 
and six miles, and the longest transverse line, between similar points in the counties 
of Mayo and Down, one hundred and eighty-two miles. The entire area appears, from 
the latest and best measurement, to include thirty-one thousand eight hundred and 
seventy-four square miles, or twenty millions three hundred and ninety-nine thou- 
sand, six hundred and eight English statute acres. 

Ireland is divided into four provinces, namely, Leinster, on the east ; Munster, on 
the south ; Ulster, on the north; and Connaught, on the west: these are subdivided 
into thirty-two counties, two hundred and fifty-two baronies, and two thousand three 
hundred and forty-eight parishes. 

In superficial character, Ireland may be called a hilly or mountainous country, 
since there are few spots where the view is not terminated by lofty hills or mount- 
ain scenery. Generally speaking, the mountains stand in groups, and are more or 
less detached from each other ; but in some districts they form ridges of great ex- 
tent. The Mourne range, in the county of Down, lies west and east, ending with 
Slieve Donard, which rises two thousand eight hundred and nine feet above the 
level of the sea, and is the highest of the northern mountains. The Slieve Bloom 
mountains, placed in nearly the centre of the island, run north and south, intersect- 
ing the King's and Queen's counties: in this range, sometimes called the Ard na Erin, 
or Heights of Ireland, the rivers Nore, Barrow, and Suir, commonly called by the 
country people the Three Sisters, take their rise. In Connaught there is a fine 
range, of which the Twelve Pins form a part; and in Munster, a ridge of varied 
height extends from Dungarvon, in the county of Waterford, across the kingdom, 
into the county of Kerry. It may be here observed, that wherever the Irish term 
slieve is applied to a mountain, it expresses that that mountain forms part of a range. 
The highest mountain in Ireland is Carran Tual, at Killarney, being three ihousand 
four hundred and ten feet above the level of the sea. Mount Nephin and Croagk 
Patrick, two conspicuous mountains in Mayo, are respectively two thousand six 
hundred and thirty-nine and two thousand four hundred and ninety-nine feel high. 



524 DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. 

Some, however, of the counties, though possessing a very varied surface, can only 
boast of hills, as Armagh, Monaghan, Cavan, and Louth, while others are in gen- 
eral very level : Meath, Kildare, Longford, and Galway, are of the latter character. 
A distinguishing peculiarity of the country, whether in its hilly or more level dis- 
tricts, is its generally green appearance, a circumstance arising from its fertile soil and 
moist and temperate climate, and which has led to its receiving the appellations of 
the "Emerald Isle," and " Green Isle of the Ocean" — names sung by its poets, and 
repeated with affection by its natives in all quarters of the world. 

In the lower and less reclaimed portions of the country, there are various exten- 
sive bogs or morasses, which disfigure the beauty of the scenery, and are only ser- 
viceable in supplying fuel to the adjacent inhabitants. The chief of these morasses is 
the Bog of Allen, which stretches in a vast plain, across the centre of the island, or 
over a large portion of Kildare, Carlow, and the King's and Queen's counties. In this 
bog, the beautiful river Boyne takes its rise, flowing thence northeastward to the 
sea at Drogheda, on the borders of the county of Louth : much of this bog has been 
drained and brought into tillage, and there is good reason to think that in time the 
whole of it will be reclaimed. Along the banks of the River Inny, which, rising in 
Lough Iron, in the county of Westmeath, crosses Longford and falls into the Shan- 
non, are large tracts of deep wet bog, only exceeded in dreariness by that which for 
miles skirts the Shannon, in its course through Longford, Roscommon, and the 
King's county. All these bogs might be easily reclaimed, could they be drained; 
but that can not be accomplished, as the Inny and the Shannon are kept up to their 
present level by the numerous eel-weirs which at present interrupt their course. 
There are also many tracts of bog in the western counties, and many detached bogs 
both in Ulster and Munster; but none of such great size as those above mentioned. 
It is remarkable, that, notwithstanding the quantity of water contained in these ex- 
tensive bogs, there arises from them no miasma injurious to health. This is attribu- 
table to the large portion of tannin they contain, which possesses so strong an anti- 
septic quality, that bodies plunged into a deep bog remain undecayed, the fle'sh 
becoming like that of an Egyptian mummy. It sometimes happens that a bog, over- 
charged with water during a rainy season, breaks through the obstruction which the 
drained and more solid part affords, and, rushing forward, overflows large portions 
of good land. This occurred in the year 1821, when the Bog of Clara, in the county 
of Westmeath, suddenly burst into the valley of the river Brusna, and totally de- 
stroyed many hundred acres of excellent land : a similar occurrence took place, to a 
large extent, a very few years since, in the county of Antrim. 

Ireland is described as a thickly- wooded country, not only by her early native 
writers, but by all those English authors who have given any account of the coun- 
try, from the days of Giraldus Cambrensis, about A. D. 1185. Morrison (1596) and 
Davis (1605), mention the forests in which the poor Irish took refuge; and all the 
scenery of Spenser's Fairy Queen is drawn from the River Bandon, which he cele- 
brates as the " pleasant Bandon, wood y-crowned," as it is to this day. Boate, in 
his Natural History, mentions the great extent of wood then standing; but not long 
did it so stand, for wherever Cromwell's army came, the forests were felled, and 
the country laid bare. In most cases, the bogs give ample testimony to the truth of 
these statements, some supplying large quantities of fir, which burns with a ple.is- 
ant aromatic smell, and a flame so brilliant that it is often used in place of candles. 
In other bogs, only oak is dug up, and sometimes sallow, and yew of a great size, 
which takes a fine polish and is used for cabinet-work. There are still, in a few 
favored spots, some remains of the ancient oak and ash woods, as at Killarney, at 
Glengariffe near Bantry, in Connemara, in some spots of the county of Wicklow 
and in Donegal, near the beautiful but little Lough Van, where a few red deer are 
still to be seen. Near the mouth of the Suir, at the foot of the Knockmeledan 
mountains, is a wood of the pine species, commonly called Scotch fir, of such size 
and hardness, that Mr. Nimmo, the engineer, pronounced it to be equal to the best 
Memel timber, and used it in constructing the pier at Dunmore Many noblemen 
and gentlemen have planted largely and with great success, their flourishing planta- 
tions giving promise that the country in a few years will again be furnished with 
trees. 

Ireland possesses many large and remarkably fine rivers, several of which form 
lakes at certain points in their course, and fall into the sea at the head of spacious 
bays every way suitable for navigation. The principal rivers are the Foyle and the 



GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION.-GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE. 525 




526 DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. 

Bann, which flow into the Northern ocean ; the Boyne, the Liffey, and the Slaney, 
which empty themselves into the Irish channel ; the Barrow and the Nore, which, 
falling into the Suir, pour their united streams into the bay of Waterford ; the 
Blackwater and the Lee, which run southward, their embouchures being at Youghal 
and Cork ; the Shannon, the Gweebarra, the Erne, the Moy, the Mang, and the Lane, 
which flow into the Atlantic. Among inland lakes or loughs, the largest is Lough 
Neagh, in Ulster, which exceeds in size any lake in the United Kingdom, its length 
being twenty miles by a breadth of from ten to twelve : its waters are discharged by 
the Bann. 

Ireland stretches westward into the Atlantic, and is indented, as has been sta- 
ted, by deep bays, protected by jutting promontories, which have hitherto withstood 
the force of the boisterous ocean to which they are exposed. The rock which forms 
the bed or bottom of these bays, is generally composed of the secondary or carbonif- 
erous limestone, while the projecting promontories to the north and south of each are 
composed, for the most part, of primary or transition rocks, and particularly of gran- 
ite, mica-slate, quartz rock, grawacke, and old red sandstone conglomerate. In Ire- 
land the coast is mostly mountainous, and the interior flat. Thus, we find the 
mountains of Antrim on the east ; of Derry and Donegal on the northwest coasts ; 
those of Sligo and Kerry west and southwest. The slate districts of Cork and Wa- 
terford form the south and southeast, while the mountains of Wicklow, and those 
still higher ones of Louth and Down, are situated on the eastern coast. The inte- 
rior of the island is, generally speaking, composed of flat or gently swelling grounds, 
covered with rich and fruitful soil. This peculiar conformation of the surface has 
been the origin of the great number of rivers with which the Irish coast abounds. 
They have their sources in the neighboring mountains, whence they flow directly to 
the sea. The flatness of the interior of Ireland has been the probable cause of those 
vast accumulations of alluvial matter called escars. They possibly originated at a 
period when the country was at least partially submerged, from eddies formed by 
undulations on the surface. The origin of the great tracts of bog found so generally 
in the flat country, may be attributed to the water pent up, as we even now find it, 
above the level of the dry country, by gravel hills, which form a continuous ridge, 
though not of equal height, round the edge of the bog. The central district of Ire- 
land contains upward of one million of acres of bog, comprehended between Wick- 
low head and Galway, Houth head and Sligo. 

A vast tract of limestone extends in an almost unbroken line from the north of 
Cork to the south of Fermanagh, with an intermixture toward the eastern coast of 
clayslate, grawacke, and grawacke-slate, with veins of granite interspersed, as is 
the case in the counties of Down, Armagh, and Wicklow. The southern coast is 
composed of limestone and old conglomerate, with red, purple, and gray clayslate, 
which may be distinctly seen along the shores of Cork and Waterford. In the 
southwestern coasts are large tracts of coal formation ; while the western are formed 
of granite, carboniferous limestone, including the lower limestone, calp or black 
shale series, and the upper limestone, with a tract of the coal formation. There are 
also in Galway, Mayo, and Sligo, tracts of mica-slate, quartz rock, yellow sandstone, 
and conglomerate. The northern division, consisting of the counties of Donegal and 
Derry, is chiefly mica-slate, with an intermixture, in the northern part of Donegal, 
of granite, quartz rock, and primary limestone ; while the county of Antrim is com- 
posed of tabular trap. The counties in which coal is worked are Carlow, Kilkenny, 
Donegal, Limerick, Tyrone, and part of Tipperary. 

Ireland is rich in minerals, and contains gold, silver, though not in large veins, 
as well as copper, lead, coal, and sulphur. Her quarries also produce a variety r.£ 
beautiful marbles, as the black marble of Kilkenny, the green of Galway, and the 
many-colored of Fermanagh. The quarries of Killaloe and of Valentia, in the 
county of Kerry, afford large-sized, excellent slates, now coming extensively into 
use. Nor should the inexhaustible supply of extremely fine building-stone, which 
the hills south of Dublin afford, be left unmentioned. Of this granite, the particular 
vein which is worked at the coast village of Bullock, has been found to withstand 
the wash of the sea better than any other kind of stone, and is exclusively reserved 
for the building of the lower stories of those lighthouses which are exposed to violent 
sea-wash. The stones are cut on the spot, and shipped ready fitted to their places. 



CLIMATE.— VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS— ANIMALS. 527 

CHAPTER XL VII. 
CLIMATE.— VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS.— ANIMALS 

There i< but a small part of Ireland more than fifty miles from the sea, a circum 
stance whieh fully accounts for the mildness of the climate, its equability, and ita 
humidity. The temperate atmosphere of Ireland was held in high estimation, and 
strong testimony to its goodness is borne by the older historians. At the beginning 
of this century (1804), Dr. Hamilton, in his account of Antrim, mentions the equable 
distribution of heat throughout the island, and the perpetual verdure of the fields, 
unimpaired by either solstice. This equability of temperature is clearly proved by 
the fact, that delicate plants thrive in the county of Donegal, close upon the Northern 
ocean. Arbutus and laurestinus there grow healthily, and myrtles so luxuriantly, 
as to cover the walls of houses up to the second story. On the shore of Lough 
Swilley, near Ramelton, the agapanthus and the fuschia abide in winter in the open 
ground, and flower extremely well in summer. The southern part of Ireland is con- 
siderably warmer than Ulster. The snow seldom lies for any considerable time. 
The spring is earlier, fruit ripens a fortnight sooner, and the harvest is fit for the 
sickle a month before that of the northern, and a fortnight before the midland dis- 
tricts. In the counties of Cork and Kerry, tender shrubs, such as bay, verbena, 
fuschia, &c, grow with extraordinary luxuriance; and the native arbutus enriches 
the wild scenery of Killarney and Glengariffe. The moisture of the climate is its 
greatest defect; but this varies remarkably in degree. The atmosphere of the 
western side of Ireland is naturally much more humid than that of the eastern, ex- 
posed as it is to the influence of the moist vapors of the great Atlantic, which, 
attracted by the mountains, rest upon their heads and pour down rain into the valleys. 
Thus, the greatest quantity of rain which has been known to fall — forty-two inches 
— was near Colooney in the county of Sligo, while the smallest quantity is at Armagh, 
which, though a very hilly, is comparatively an inland district. In a paper lately- 
read at the Royal Irish academy, it appeared, from comparative registers carefully 
kept, that, in the year 1839, there had been, at Monks Eleigh, which is about forty 
miles from the seacoast of Suffolk, 21-726 inches of rain ; while at Toomavara, in 
the county of Tipperary, and about forty miles from the western coast, there fell 
40-552 inches, or very nearly double the quantity: but during the same year, only 
21-7 fell at Armagh — a curious instance of the differences arising from local circum- 
stances. Again, the county of Dublin is wetter than that of Wicklow, because the 
clouds charged with rain pass over Dublin toward the channel, free from every ob- 
stacle, while those which cross Wicklow, striking upon the mountains and hills, 
deposite their moisture upon their western slopes, leaving the eastern sides of the 
country between them and the sea dry and in sunshine. 

The botany and zoology of Ireland generally resemble those of the neighboring 
island. The cultivated plants and useful animals are identical. There are, however, 
some peculiar to Ireland. 

The more remarkable plants which are indigenous and peculiar to Ireland, are — 
the arbutus unedo, or strawberry-tree, found at Killarney, particularly beautiful from 
its abundance of red fruit; the rosa Hibernica, Irish rose, found near Belfast; the 
ulex strieta, Irish furze, found sparingly in the county of Down, distinguished from 
common furze by its upright mode of growth and softer texture ; the laxus Hibernica, 
frequently called Florencecourt yew, from having been first observed in Lord Ennis- 
killen's demesne in the county of" Fermanagh — its growth is upright, resembling that 
of the cyptess, and its foliage dark green ; the menziesia polyfolia, Irish menziesia, 
a very beautiful plant, whose large purple heath-like bells decorate the wild districts 
of Galway ; the erica Mediterranea, discovered by Mr. Mackay at Connemara in 1829, 
a distinct variety of the Corsican heath, very ornamental in the flowering season , 
the erica Mackayana, many-branched cross-leaved heath, sent to Mr. Mackay lrom 
Gonnemara, and named after him by Sir William Hooker, professor of botany, 
Glasgow (the three last species of heaths are also natives of the Pyrenees) ; the 
saxifraga geum, kidney-leaved saxifrage ; s. hirsuta, hairy saxifrage ; s. elegans, 



528 DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. 

small round-leaved saxifrage ; s. umbrosa, variety serratula, saw-leaved saxifrage, 
or London pride. The above four species and varieties, new to Britain and Ireland, 
were discovered by Mr. Mackay, in the mountains near Killarney, in 1805. They 
all resemble the London pride of the gardens, which also grows wild on the mount- 
ains of Galway, Mayo, Sligo, and Donegal. 

With respect to the animal kingdom, there were formerly several races of cattle 
considered as exclusively Irish, of which two kinds are still extant — the Kerry breed, 
which is black, very small, and beautifully proportioned, the limbs and horns being 
most delicately made ; they are excellent milkers, both for quantity and quality, and 
are remarkable for their gentle and affectionate disposition : they are to be had only 
in the remote barony of Iveragh, in the county of Kerry. The other species, which 
is always called the old Irish breed, is usually of a bright red, the back hollow, the 
pin bones high, the head very small, a fine eye ; the horns growing upright, and 
remarkably slender, as are the legs. They are very deficient in beauty, but are 
valuable for the dairy. The red deer, though now extremely scarce, are still to be 
found at Killarney, in some of the wild mountain districts of Kerry, and the adjoining 
part of the county of Cork ; at Shanbally in the county of Tipperary, and in Donegal. 
The wolf-dog, now almost extinct, is still occasionally to be seen in Ireland ; the 
curly-haired liver-colored water-dog, which is considered quite an Irish breed ; the 
large black and tan breed of terriers, peculiar to the county of Kerry. Squirrels are 
common in some places. The gillaroo-trout is peculiar to Lough Neagh ; and the 
pollen, or fresh- water trout, was long considered so, but has lately been found in the 
Scottish lakes. The dor char is also peculiar to Lough Neagh ; it is of a darker 
color than trouts usually are. It is generally supposed that Ireland possesses no 
reptiles, but this is a vulgar error. The toad and frog are common. • 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

THE PEOPLE.— THEIR CHARACTER AND CIRCUMSTANCES.— 

POPULATION. 

The bulk of the Irish people are a branch of the Celtic race, who were probably 
the first settlers in the island. The peasantry, throughout nearly the whole country, 
are of this origin, and in many parts they still speak the Celtic (here termed the Irish) 
language. The chief exception from this rule is in the north, where a great number 
of the humbler, as well as middle classes, are descended from comparatively recent 
settlers of Scottish extraction. Another rather conspicuous exception is found in 
Connaught, particularly in Galway, where a considerable number of the people seem 
to be of Spanish descent. Families of English extraction are comparatively rare 
among the laboring class in Ireland. 

The Irish laboring classes, and a large portion of the middle classes, being thus 
generally of Celtic origin, are marked by many peculiar features. Their character 
includes much quickness of apprehension and ingenuity, considerable natural elo- 
quence and wit, and affections much warmer than those of most European nations. 
but is generally acknowledged to be deficient in reflection and foresight, and liable 
to a peculiar irascibility, which often attaches to a mercurial and upon the whole 
amiable character. The upper, and a large portion of the middle classes, being of 
Saxon descent, are not much different from the same classes in Great Britain ; but, 
in as far as any difference exists, it may be said to consist in a tincture of the Celtic, 
or genuine Irish character, as just described. This admixture is perhaps that which 
gives the educated Irish so much artistic talent, whether to be exhibited in literature 
or the arts, while some of the more peculiarly English characteristics are less con- 
spicuous. 

Limiting the consideration of the social state of Ireland to what is peculiar to it, 
we may first advert to a conspicuous practice of the landowners — absenteeism. By 
absentees are not meant those noblemen, who, being Englishmen, have also large 



THE PEOPLE.— THEIR CHARACTER., &c. 529 

possessions in Ireland, and whose estates (with some glaring exceptions) are usually 
well and justly managed ; but those sons of Erin who prefer living in any other 
country to remaining in their own, although it is at home only that a man receives 
his just meed of respect. This system of absenteeism has led to that of middlemen, 
who hold large tracts of land from the head landlord, and relet this land at a much 
increased rent to farmers ; these, again, let to a third set of under-tenants at rack-rents ; 
and this lowest grade of tenantry divide their small farms among their sons, thus 
creating a race of farming poor, who are unable to till their holdings properly, and 
miserably increasing a population raised but a step above the pauper. There is 
perhaps no more thriving person than the farming-landholder, who, contented with 
his condition, rises with his laborers, holds his own plough, and superintends the 
management of his farm ; but the state of the cottier is often far from being a happy 
one. The discomfort of this class may be said to arise chiefly from three causes — 
low wages, high rents, and, most of all, from the want of steady employment. The 
too great subdivision of land, as will be shown, in treating of the condition of the 
peasantry in the provinces, is another cause of the general poverty and want of com- 
fort of the cottier. Under (he excitement of war prices and the free trade in corn 
with Great Britain, agriculture advanced rapidly, and, consequently, so did the de- 
mand for labor ; land rose in value, lessees were tempted to realise profit-rents by 
subletting their farms ; and thus a class of middlemen was created, by whom the 
land was let in still smaller divisions, and at extreme rents. This system was an 
absolute bar to the encouragement which might have been given to the tenantry by 
the proprietors of estates. The occupying landlord pays a higher rent to the middle- 
man than does the middleman to the proprietor, because the middleman exacts as 
much as he can get, without any reference to the future situation of the tenant : but 
the landlord has different feelings — he looks forward, and considers the reversionary 
interest which he has in keeping his tenant in prosperity, and his land in a state to 
yield a remunerating proflt. 

The habits of getting credit frequently at an advance of 50 per cent., of resorting 
to pawnbrokers, and of forming early marriages, contribute to the impoverishment 
of the laboring classes in Ireland. The poorer the individuals are, the more eager 
are they for wedlock ; even the very beggars intermarry. It must, however, be ad- 
mitted as some excuse, that early marriage is much encouraged by the Romish 
priesthood ; and in fairness it must be added, that this practice contributes exceed- 
ingly to the morality of the lower classes. The superstitious regard to wakes and 
funerals, which has been handed down from ancient times, is often a deplorable drain 
on the slender resources of the peasant. 

In considering the character of the Irish peasantry in general, it is refreshing to 
see some noble traits standing out in full relief against the darker shades. The 
Irish people are of acknowledged bravery, proverbial hospitality, affectionate to 
their parents and aged relatives, charitable to the mendicant, and evincing in many 
places, even under extreme distress, a decency of feeling, which renders them averse 
to soliciting eleemosynary assistance. The women, generally speaking, are modest 
and irreproachable in their conduct ; and it must be added, that, notwithstanding 
the crime and wretchedness which oppress the country, the poor Irish are free from 
some species of vice which are but too common in other countries. During the hay 
and corn harvests of England and Scotland, the services of the Irish laborers are 
very important. They are generally sober, well-conducted, and inoffensive ; labor- 
ing hard and living hard, that they may bring their earnings home to pay the rent 
of their little farm or dwelling. A spalpeen, or harvest-man, carries home from 
four to eight or ten pounds; to do which, he is contented, while away, almost to 
starve himself. There is reason, therefore, to hope, that under a better stale of 
things, the national character would rise to a standard much higher than it has yet 
attained ; and improvement may reasonably be expected from the happy change 
wrought of late years by the temperance societies, and especially by the Roman 
Catholic clergyman, the Rev. T. Mathew, of which evidence was given in the 
Ballinasloe fair of 1840, where, instead of twelve hogsheads, the quantity usually 
disposed of, it is believed that thete were only eight gallons of whisky consumed. 

The last, but by no means the most miserable class in Ireland, is that of the com- 
mon vagrant. Of these, some are beggars by profession ; some are obliged, from 
loss of employment, to become what are called walkers ; and others are mendicants 
for a time only, as when their husbands are reaping the harvests in England, at 

34 



530 DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. 

which time it is customary to lock up the house, and the w.'fe and children walk 
the world until the traveller returns with his little hoard of hard-earned money. It 
may be asserted, that in every district of Ireland, excepting some peculiarly circum- 
stanced portions of Ulster, there is a feeling of respect toward mendicancy, which 
tends to support and perpetuate it. The poor tenants of the cabins receive the wan- 
derers, whether single or in groups ; and carrying, as these do, their bedding along 
with them, a warm corner is allowed them, even in the only room possessed. "It 
is the humblest sort," say they. " that are really good to us." The vagrants that 
frequent fairs, markets, patrons, holy wells, and other places of religious or pleas- 
urable resort, are belter off than the other poor. A respectable evidence declared 
to the commissioners on the Poor-law Inquiry in the county of Meath, that the beg- 
gars at fairs were "as jolly a set as ever he saw in his life :" and in more places 
than one, it was stated to the commissioners that the beggars were better off than 
the tradesmen or laborers. ^ 

Hitherto the usual methods of supporting the pauper poor have been congrega- 
tional collections, subscriptions, very extensive private charity, and of late years the 
application of the resources of the Mendicity Association ; but the inefficiency of 
these means have ultimately led to the establishment of a poor-law, the general ob- 
ject of which is to relieve the destitution of the country. Under this system, as- 
sistance is proposed to be afforded to persons only in the workhouses of their re- 
spective parochial unions, which are now erecting throughout Ireland. It is calcu- 
lated that a hundred workhouses, placed in the centre of so many unions, and 
capable of containing each from four to eight hundred persons, will be sufficient to 
accommodate all who are likely to apply for admission. For the better regulation 
of the system, it was enacted, that a board of guardians should be annually elected 
in eacn union, in number according as the commissioners shall see fit, the same 
guardians being eligible for the subsequent year. It appears that, so far as the poor- 
law system is as yet brought into operation, it is imperfect, and has not relieved the 
districts in which it has been carried into effect from the annoyance of mendicity, 
inasmuch as there is no compulsory law for retaining vagrants in the poorhouses; 
they therefore leave them at pleasure, to follow the more agreeable course of beg- 
ging in the streets. Until such enactment be passed, Ireland, it would seem, will 
be subject to a severe taxation in support of the poor-law system, while at the same 
time it is not relieved of the evils of mendicancy. So far as the poorhouses are yet 
in operation, they seem to be well conducted ; arrangements are made for the in- 
struction of the younger portion of the inmates, and the details of food, clothing, 
and lodging, appear to be generally considered satisfactory. 

The population of Ireland was estimated by an acute statesman of the reign of 
Charles II. as being then about one million one hundred thousand. Another esti- 
mate, formed in 1731, but upon data not perfectly to be relied on, made the popula- 
tion two million ten thousand two hundred and twenty-one. This last number 
seems to have been doubled before 1788, till which time Ireland was almost ex- 
clusively a pastoral country. Since then, agriculture and commerce have borne 
more conspicuous parts in the national industry ; but circumstances unfavorable to 
national happiness and wealth have also been strongly operative, and the progress 
of the people was, till a very late date, upon the whole, downward. In proportion 
to the unfavorable circumstances, and most of all where the circumstances have 
been the most unfavorable, the population has increased. It was, at the first regular 
census, in 1821, six millions eight hundred and one thousand eight hundred and 
twenty-seven; and at that of 1831, seven millions seven hundred and sixty-seven 
thousand four hundred and one. What strikingly illustrates the principle here 
alluded to, is, that in Leinster, which contain populous towns and is a comparatively 
prosperous province, the increase in the ten years between these two census, was at 
the rate of nine per cent. ; while in Connaught, where there are few towns, but a 
numerous peasantry in a very depressed condition, the increase was twenty-two per 
cent. It is a recent discovery, but a very important one, that, below a certain point 
in comfort of life, population is apt to experience a rapid increase, to the aggrava- 
tion of all existing evils. And it is to this evil, more particularly, that a well-regu- 
lated poor-law may be considered as addressed. 



ANTIQUITIES. 531 



CHAPTER XLIX. 
ANTIQUITIES. 

The antiquities of Ireland may be classed under the heads of the cromlech, the 
cairn, the circle, the pillar-stone, the barrow, the dun, the lis, the rath, the an- 
cient stone-roofed buildings, and the lofty and beautifully built round towers. The 
name cromlech is compounded of crom, which signifies fate or Providence, and 
llech, a stone, literally " the stone or altar of God." Cromlech is also interpreted 
to mean an inclining stone, from the words crwm, bowed, and llech, a stone, as 
spoken of on page 116. They vary in size and form, and in most instances consist of 
three upright supporters, two at the lower and one at the upper end, upon which the 
altarstone was balanced ; underneath this, and between the uprights, a hollow is 
usually found, which is thought to have been for the purpose of facilitating the 
passage of cattle and children under the sacred fire — a custom which seems to be 
alluded to in the Scriptures, when the Israelites are reproached with passing their 
sons and daughters through the fire to Moloch, one of the names given to the sun. 

Of the cairn there were two kinds, the burying and the simple cairn, or high 
place made of stones flattened on the top. These artificial high places were usually 
situated on an eminence ; and here, on festival days, especially the first of May and 
the first of November, the fires of Bel were wont to be lighted. At these times all 
household fires were extinguished, to be rekindled by a brand from the sacred flame 
— a practice which continued till the time of St. Patrick, who succeeded in putting 
an end to it. Tumuli of this description abound in all parts of the kingdom. 

Closely connected with the cairn, are the circles of upright stones, usually called 
druidic circles. They frequently surround a cairn, as that of New Grange, in the 
county of Meath, where the stones are placed about one third of the whole height, 
above the base : frequently they encircle a pillar-stone. 

The pillar-stone is so frequently joined with the circle, cair, cromlech, and sacred 
grove, that it can not be passed over in silence. Numerous instances might be 
pointed out of lofty upright stones in many parts of the kingdom, standing some- 
times singly, but most commonly in conjunction with one or more of the above- 
mentioned relics of pagan times. Tradition says, that formerly the people collected 
round such stones for worship, which is confirmed by the common expression in 
Irish of " going to the stone," for going to church or chapel. These stones are con- 
ceived by many to have given rise to the carved stone cross found in various church- 
yards, and of which one of the finest specimens is to be seen at Monasterboyce, in 
the county of Louth. 

There are several kinds of tumuli remaining, of which the Irish names declare 
the original object. The Lios or Lis, which signifies a fortified house, was an 
artificial hill, sometimes approaching in shape to an ellipse, with a flat top, and an 
earthen breastwork or rampart thrown round the little plain on the summit, where 
was placed the dwelling, usually protected by a strong wattled paling, as is now 
customary among the Circassians. The duns or doons were places of strength, 
always perched on a rocky bold situation, and fenced by a broad wall of extremely 
large stones, which wall forms one of the distinctions between the dun and the lis. 
The rath signifies a village or settlement: these abound in all parts of the island, 
and are of various sizes, standing sometimes singly, sometimes so as to form a chain 
of posts ; and frequently may be seen a large head rath, where the chieftain lived, 
and its smaller dependent raths, on which his retainers dwelt. 

Among the earliest and peculiar antiquities of Ireland, are the low stone-roofed 
buildings, with high wedge-shaped roofs : of these, a few instances still exist at 
Kells, Kildare, Ardmore, and Killaloe. The most remarkable relics of the olden 
times of Ireland are the lofty round towers, of which, perfect and imperfect, one 
hundred and eighteen have been enumerated in various parts of the kingdom. 
They are built with a wonderful uniformity of plan. They are all circular, of small 
diameter, and great altitude. In most of them the door is at some height from the 



532 DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. 

ground ; small loop-hole windows, at distances in the sides, give light to the spaces 
where the different floors once were ; and generally ihere were four larger-sized 
windows round the top, immediately below the roof, which is high and cone-shaped. 
There are, however, two or three towers, in which it does not appear that there 
ever were any windows round the top. Of the excellence of the masonry, a proof 
was given some years ago by the tower of Mahera, which, in consequence of having 
been undermined, was blown down, and lay, at length and entire upon the ground, 
like a huge gun, without breaking to pieces, so wonderfully hard and binding was 
the cement with which it had been constructed. Various theories have been offered 
as to the purpose for which these mysterious buildings were erected ; the only clear 
point seems to be that they were religious, as they are always placed near churches. 
They vary in height from thirty-five to one hundred and twenty feet; the internal 
diameter from ten to sixteen feet, and the outer circumference from forty-six to fifty- 
six feet. Their tapering shape forms one of their most marked characteristics. 

Ancient weapons and golden ornaments are from time to time dug up in all parts 
of Ireland, as bronze swurds, exactly like those discovered at Carthage and on the 
field of Marathon. Multitudes, also, of spear-heads of all sizes, made of the same 
mixed metal, and curiously-shaped bronze rings, have from time to time been dis- 
covered, the use of which had long been a desideratum to antiquaries, when a re- 
cent event unexpectedly threw light upon the subject, and confirmed the conjecture 
of Sir William Betham as to their having been current money. A variety of golden 
articles have been discovered in many parts of the country, such as semi-lunar 
shaped disks, formed of thin plates of pure gold ; torques, or large twisted collars 
for the neck ; armlets, brooches, rings, pieces of gold, bell-shaped, but solid and 
fastened together, the use of which has not been made out ; and some rings of the 
same shape as those of bronze, which have been proved by Sir William Betham to 
have been used as money. 

Ecclesiastical Antiquities. — Under this head rank those buildings which may be 
considered as the most ancient, after the pagan remains, and which bear a peculiar 
character, differing from that of any extent elsewhere. Of these but few are now 
in existence. The stone-roofed church of St. Doulagh's, near Dublin, belongs to 
the earliest date ; its plan and style are equally uncommon. The latter seems to 
have been a rude approach to the oldest Norman ; it is low, and of great strength ; 
the church, divided by a low-browed arch, seems to have had a small choir and a 
somewhat larger nave. There are also, strangely disposed, at various heights, 
small chambers, apparently for the residence of the clergy. A part of the building 
is used as the parish church ; and the old tower has borne the addition of a belfry, 
so excellent was the mason-work. The beautiful and curious ruin at Cashel, called 
Cormack's chapel, is Norman in character, and was probably the cathedral of that 
diocese previous to the English invasion. It is considered to have been built in the 
tenth century by Cormach, who was both king and archbishop. He died about 
A. D. 990. It is to be observed, that both here and at St. Doulagh's, are crypts placed 
aver the churches — a peculiarity known in Ireland only ; the crypts in all other 
countries being underneath. In this very marked Irish-Norman style, there exists 
a few remains at Aghadoe near Killarney, at Clonathen in the county of Wexford, 
and near Bannow in the same county, in an ancient town, which having been, time 
out of mind, overwhelmed by the blowing sand from the coast, has only within a 
few years been discovered, but, protected by the sand, is in a high state of pres- 
ervation. The peculiar character which marks these buildings, proves them to be 
examples of the Irish style subsequent to the age of the towers, and previous to that 
brought in by the British invaders. 

Ireland can not boast of any ecclesiastical buildings of great richness or beauty ; 
but there are some of respectable appearance. The two cathedrals of the capital, 
St. Patrick's and Christ-Church, are at least elegant in the interior. The large 
eathedral of Galway, and that of Limerick, are both handsome buildings, as is the 
cathedral of Kilkenny. These are all in good order, and in daily use. 

There are numberless ruins of monasteries, abbeys, knights' preceptories, and 
churches. Among these, the ruins of the cathedral of Kildare deserve notice. Kil- 
dare is now of but little importance, numbering only some two thousand inhabit- 
ants, and is only interesting for its remains of ecclesiastical establishments, which are 
evidences of its former consideration. The principal of these remains is the cathe- 
dral, the greater part of which is in ruins, the choir only being now in a fit condition 



ANTIQUITIES. 



533 




534 DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. 

for religious services. The ecclesiastical establishments for which, more than for 
anything else, Kildare was formerly distinguished, owe their origin to St. Brigid. 
This lady, who was the illegitimate daughter of an Irish chieftain, was born in the 
year 458. In her fourteenth year she received the veil from the hands of St. Pat- 
rick, or one of his immediate disciples. She afterward visited the abbey of Glaston- 
bury, in Somersetshire, and on her return (or, at any rate, before 484) founded a nun- 
nery at Kildare. About the same time an abbey was also founded under the same 
roof for monks, but separated from the nunnery by walls. The monks and nuns had 
but one church in common, which they entered by different doors. St. Brigid pre- 
sided as well over the monks as the nuns, and, " strange to tell !" exclaims Archdall, 
the abbot of the house remained subject to the abbess for many years after the death 
of the celebrated foundress, which took place on the 1st of February, 523. She was 
interred at Kildare ; but her remains were afterward removed to the cathedral-church 
of Down, and laid beside those of St. Patrick and St. Columb. This St. Brigid, or 
Bridget, became quite the virgin-saint of Ireland, and next to the names of the Vir- 
gin Mary and St. Patrick her name obtained more reverence than any other in the 
calendar. 

The amount of the influence which this extraordinary female acquired may be es- 
timated from the fact, that she is represented as the foundress, not only of the mon- 
astery, but of the see of Kildare. It is stated that she appointed as bishop a person 
variously called St. Conlceth, Conlaid, and Conlian, who, with her assistance, erected 
the cathedral. Some writers, however, contend that there were bishops of Kildare 
before this personage ; but Sir James Ware prefers the authority of the persons who 
have written the life of St. Brigid. One of these gives this account of the trans- 
action : " Conlian, a holy bishop and prophet of the Lord, who had a cell in the 
south part of the plains of Liffi, came in his chariot to St. Brigid, and abode with 
her; and the holy Brigid elected him bishop in her city of Kildare." In the next 
century, Aod Oubh, or Black Hugh, the kingof Leinster, withdrew to the monastery 
of Kildare, of which he in time became abbot, and afterward bishop of the see. The 
first Englishman who occupied the see was Ralph of Bristol, who died in 1232. This 
prelate went to great expense in repairing and ornamenting the cathedral. In the 
reign of Henry VII. it had again fallen into decay, and was repaired by the bishop 
Edward Lane, who died in 1522. It was a fine old Gothic building, now mostly in 
ruins. The walls, however, are still standing, together with the south side of the 
steeple and the walls of the nave, which has on the south side six Gothic arches and 
six buttresses. The north side of the steeple is level with the ground, and is said to 
have been beaten down, with other parts of the building, by a battery planted against 
it during the disturbances in 1641. The choir, in which the church services are still 
performed, affords little matter for remark. It is kept in decent repair, and a hand- 
some Venetian window supplies the place of an old Gothic one, which was much 
admired. The south wing, which was formerly a chapel, is a mass of ruins ; but 
two statues in alto relievo may still be noticed. One of them represents an ancient 
knight of the Fitzgerald family, clad in very curiously-cut armor, and surrounded by 
heraldic escutcheons; and the other a bishop, with his pastoral staff and mitre, sup- 
posed to be the Bishop Lane already mentioned. 

Kilconnel abbey, in the county of Galway; Corcomroe, in Clare, the finest ruin in 
Ireland ; Holy Cross, in Tipperary ; the Old Cathedral, on the Rock of Cashel ; 
Dunbrodyand Tintern abbeys, in Wexford ; Jerpoint, in Kilkenny ; and Lusk, in the 
county of Dublin, are the most noted of the ruins. Kilconnel and Lusk are remark- 
able for rude bas-relievoes in stone, which bear a degree of resemblance to the Egyp- 
tian hieroglyphics. Many of these still retain fragments of their former ornaments 
of fretted stone work — Holy Cross in particular. 

Military Antiquities. — The traveller in Ireland must be struck with the vast num- 
bers of small castles which stud the whole country. They chiefly bear date about 
the reign of Elizabeth, by whose orders they were raised, as strongholds to overawe 
the wild Irish. They are usually high and square, with towers at each corner. Be- 
sides these fortalices, there are ruins of very large castles, so customarily attributed 
to King John, as to show that they were built in the early times. Of these, the ex- 
tensive ruin at Trim, in the county of Meath, affords a fair example, as being one 
of the largest, and often formerly the residence of the viceroy or chief governor 
Parliaments were held within its walls, and money minted there and sent into circu- 
lation. 



ANTIQUITIES. 535 

The castle of Dunluce, about two miles from that singular and interesting curios- 
ity, the Giant's Causeway, is one of the most important as well as picturesque re- 
mains of the kind in Ireland. It is situated on an insulated roi.k, of one hundred feet 
in perpendicular height, which is separated from the mainland by a precipitous 
chasm of about twenty feet wide. The only way by which it can be entered is by a 
narrow wall, one of the supporters of the ancient drawbridge. The Rev. Mr. Ham- 
ilton, speaking of the isolated, abrupt rock on which the castle stands, and which 
projects into the sea, says: "It seems as if it were split off from tbe terra firma. 
Over the intermediate chasm lies the only approach to the castle, along a narrow 
wall, which has been built somewhat like a bridge, from the rock to the adjoining 
land ; and this circumstance must have rendered it almost impregnable before the 
invention of artillery. It appears, however, that there was originally another nar- 
row wall which ran across the chasm parallel to the former, and that, by laying 
boards over these, an easy passage might occasionally be made for the benefit of the 
garrison." This peculiarity in the position of the castle is thus graphically described 
by the Rev. C. Otway, in his " Sketches in Ireland": — 

"Reader, surely you can not be at a loss for a drawing or print of Dunluce castle. 
Take it now in hand, and observe with me the narrow wall that connects the ruined 
fortress with the mainland : see how this wall is perforated, and, without any sup- 
port from beneath, how it hangs there, braving time and tempest, and still needing 
no arch, simply by the strength of its own cemented material. The art of man could 
not make such another self-supported thing. It is about eighteen inches broad, just 
the path of a man ; don't be afraid to cross it ; rest assured it won't tumble with 
you : it has borne many a better man, so come on !" 

The walls of the castle are built of columnar basalt, many joints of which are 
placed in such a manner as to show their polygonal sections. The reader may recol- 
lect that the Giant's Causeway is composed of polygonal or many-sided basaltic col- 
umns, vast masses of which are still lying on the coast, as if they had been torn up 
and strewed around by some convulsion : so that at the early period at which the 
castle was built, it would appear, so to speak, as if the architect had availed himself 
of the ruins of nature to aid him in his art. The base of the rock on which the ruin 
stands has been formed into caves by the action of the waves, some of which com- 
municate with the castle. 

There is no record of when Dunluce castle was built. The same may be stated 
of many of the other ruins which lie along the extensive line of coast of the county 
of Antrim. It would appear, however, to have been, at an early period, the princi 
pal stronghold of a powerful family termed the M'Quillans, or, as the Irish writers 
term them, the Macuidhlins. The M'Donnells, from Scotland, on cue of their pred- 
atory excursions in the north of Ireland, entered into a league wim the M'Quillans, 
from which event an intermarriage sprung. Afterward, either by force or fraud, for 
the story is by no means clear, the M'Donnells dispossessed the M'Quillans, and se- 
cured Dunluce to themselves. From this the chief of the M'Donnells, called by the 
English Surly Boy (in Irish Somhairle Buidhe, or Yellow Charley), according to 
Camden, was driven by Sir John Perrot, lord deputy of Ireland in Queen Elizabeth's 
time, who secured the castle for the English. But next year Surly Boy contrived to 
regain possession ; and on his coming to Dublin, and swearing allegiance to the 
crown of England, Elizabeth granted him Dunluce castle, and a large district of 
country, to be held of the crown, on condition that neither he nor his men, nor his 
descendants, should serve any foreign power without leave ; that they should restrain 
their people from ravaging ; furnish at their own expense twelve horsemen and forty 
footmen for forty days in time of war ; and pay to the king of England a certain num- 
ber of cattle and hawks annually. The head of the M'Donnells was subsequently 
created earl of Antrim ; and Dunluce castle continued to be the principal residence 
of the Antrim family till it fell into ruin, when they removed to Glenarm, their pres- 
ent residence. 

" It was," says the Rev. C. Otway, "as fine a morning as ever fell from heaven 
when we landed at Dunluce — not a cloud in the sky, not a wave on the water: the 
brown basaltic rock, with the towers of the ancient fortress that capped and covered 
it — all its gray bastions and pointed gables — lay pictured on the incumbent mirror 
of the ocean ; everything was reposinar, everything was still, and nothing was heard 
but the splash of our oars and the son^ if Alick M'Mullen, our guide, to break the 
silence of the sea. We rowed round this peninsular fortress, and then entered the 



536 



DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. 




LEINSTER. 537 

fine cavern that so curiously perforates the rock and opens its dark arch to admit our 
boat. He must, indeed, have a mind cased up in all the commonplace of dull exist- 
ence who would not, while within this cavern and under this fortress, enter into the 
associations connected with the scene, who could not hold communings with the 
' genius loci.' Fancy, I know, called up for me the war boats and the foemen, who 
either issued from or took shelter in this sea-cave : I imagined, as the tide was 
growling amid the far recesses, that I heard the moanings of chained captives, and 
the huge rocks around must be bales of plunder landed and lodged here ; and I took 
an interest, and supposed myself a sharer in the triumphs of the fortunate and the 
helplessness of the captive while suffering under the misery that bold bad men in- 
flicted in troubled times. Landing in this cavern, we passed up through its landside 
entrance toward the ruin ; the day had become exceedingly warm, and going from 
the coolness of the cave into the sultry atmosphere, we felt doubly the force of the 
sun's power : the sea-birds had retreated to their distant rocks ; the goats were pant- 
ing under the shaded ledges of the cliffs ; the rooks and choughs, with open beaks 
and drooping wings, were scattered over the downs, from whose surface the air arose 
with a quivering, undulating motion. We were all glad to retire to where, under 
the shade of the projecting cliff, a clear cold spring offered its refreshing waters." 

It is stated that, in the year 1639, on a stormy day, the part of the castle where 
the kitchen was situated gave way, and the cook, with eight other servants, who 
were busy preparing dinner, were precipitated into the sea. 

A few of the ancient castles belonging to the old nobility, still continue to be in- 
habited, as Malahide, Lord Talbot's de Malahade, and Howth, the earl of Howth's, 
both in the county of Puhli^. : Sban?« castle. *he -esi-.'enc r>f Ear) O'Neil ; Portumna 
castle, on tne Shannon, iha. of Loru Clanric.iarc ; ai.d Kilkenny casae, the seat of 
the marquis of Ormond. 



CHAPTER L. 
LEINSTER. 

This is the largest province of Ireland, and contains the twelve counties of Louth, 
Meath, Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford, Oarlow, Kilkenny, Kildare, Queen's county, 
King's county, Westmeath, and Longford, the whole forming a large tract of coun- 
try on the east side of the island, and having Dublin at a central point on the 
coast. 

The scenery of Leinster is much varied. The county most remarkable for pictu- 
resque beauty is that of Wicklow, a short way south of Dublin : the hills, glens, and 
valleys, are here rich in natural wood, and, bounded by an extensive prospect of the 
ocean, can hardly be exceeded in beauty. The principal points of attraction for 
tourists are Lough Bray, a woody ravine called the Dargle, and the vale of Avoca, 
which is one continuous piece of sylvan pleasure-ground. Wexford, still farther 
south, may also, to a considerable extent, be described as a picturesque and fertile 
county : and though the county of Meath is, for the most part, flat and tame, except 
along the banks of the Boyne and Blackwater, it can boast there of some spots of 
redeeming beauty, as an example of which, Beau Pare, the beautiful demesne of 
Gustavus Lambert, Esq., may well be mentioned ; and in a large portion of the 
county the quantity of wood, and the rich hedgerows, give an almost English char- 
acter to the landscape. Westmeath is remarkable for expansive lakes, and for the 
dry gravelly hills which give variety to its surface. The Queen's county, though a 
good deal disfigured by bog, yet boasts, at Abbeleix and Dunmore, of a great stretch 
of magnificent oak wood. The remaining part of Leinster can not be considered in- 
teresting or peculiar in its general features. The King's county contains the greatest 
portion of the flat flow-bog, on the eastern side of the Shannon ; toward Roscrea, 
where the Slieve Bloom mountains terminate, there is some fine scenery, especially 
about the ancient castle of Leap. 



538 DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. 

Leinster may be considered as much superior to the other provinces with respect 
to agriculture ; and some parts of Carlow, Kildare, and Wexford, are cultivated in a 
manner approaching in skill to that of the agricultural districts of England and Scot- 
land. In stock, implements, rotation of crops, and the industry with which manure 
is collected and composts manufactured, there is a great and increasing improvement. 
Farming societies, ploughing matches, and premiums for new and better breeds of 
cattle, have greatly tended to this increasing prosperity ; and they only, who have 
witnessed what these districts were previous to the Union, can appreciate the ame- 
lioration which has since taken place. 

In Kilkenny and its vicinity, the blanket trade was carried on to some extent, but 
latterly it has been in a very declining state. Near Dublin are some extensive paper 
manufactories, and in the county of Meath is a large flax-mill. Generally speaking, 
however, there are but few manufactures in Leinster. There is from its chief towns 
a considerable export of agricultural produce. 

The counties of Wicklow and Wexford contain an industrious and thriving popu- 
lation ; and because industrious, the people are able to pay, from soils not superior 
to those of other districts, rents which would be intolerable in other parts of Ireland. 
The Wicklow peasantry are reckoned the finest in the world, and are proverbial for 
their handsome features and fine Roman profiles, and still more so as being a re- 
spectful, quiet, and well-conducted people. The county of Wicklow is celebrated 
for its waterfalls, and that of Pola-Phuca may be mentioned as distinguished from 
others and as being one of the most picturesque objects in Ireland. Pola-Phuca, or, 
as it is sometimes written, Poul-a-Phouka, is formed by the descent of the waters 
of the river Liffey, a considerable stream, which, in leaping down several progres- 
sive ledges of rocks, brawls and foams till the precipitated waters form a vortex be- 
low of great depth, and supposed by the peasantry to be unfathomable. Pola-Phuca 
is understood to signify " Puck's" or the " Devil's Hole," an expressive term suggested 
by the whirlpool. It is not far from Rossborough, the seat of Lord Milton, on the 
left of the road leading from Blessington to Balymore, and, though situated on the 
confines of the county of Wicklow, forms a strong attraction to the citizens of Dublin, 
and strangers visiting the metropolis, in their rural excursions. A bridge thrown 
over it higher up the river than is shown in our view, contrasts strongly with the 
masses of rock impending on both sides, and affords a very picturesque effect. 

Another of these waterfalls is Powerscourt, which descends from a vast height ; 
but the stream of water is inconsiderable, except during or immediately after wet 
weather. In dry weather, it has the appearance, at a short distance, of a fine silver 
thread gliding down the face of a steep rock. 

The county of Meath is remarkably fertile ; but being less subdivided, is therefore 
less populous than any other part of Ireland, considering the richness of its soil. The 
same prosperity as that in Wicklow and Wexford, though perhaps in a smaller de- 
gree, prevails in Kildare, Carlow, and the Queen's county. One of the chief causes 
of this prosperity is, that a large portion of the population receive money payments 
for their daily labor, and another, that the cottier and con or corn acre systems are 
here less resorted to. 

The wages of Leinster are usually a shilling a-day in summer, and in winter from 
eightpence to tenpence, without diet. The average rent for arable land is from one 
to one pound and ten shillings, and for pasture land from two to three pounds per 
acre. 

The general diet of the peasantry is potatoes, milk, stirabout, eggs, butter, bacon, 
and herrings. Their dwellings are confessedly superior to those of Munster or Con- 
naught. The resident gentry are more numerous, and take a great interest in the 
well-being of their tenantry. Leinster, therefore, may altogether be pronounced a 
much improved part of the country. 

As the woollen and silk manufactures are still carried on in Dublin and other parts 
of Leinster, a slight sketch of their history may not be out of place in the account 
of that province. So early as the reign of Henry III., Irish woollen manufactures 
were imported from Ireland to England, duty free ; and so excellent was their quality, 
thatj from 1327 to 1357, they were exported to Italy, at a time when the woollen 
fabrics of the latter country had attained a high degree of excellence. The pros- 
perity of the trade is noticed in an act of Elizabeth : and so flourishing was it in the 
time of Sir William Temple, that he became apprehensive lest it should interfere 
with that of the English. In 1688, the woollen manufacture was established to a 



LEINSTER. 



539 




540 DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. 

considerable extent in the liberties of Dublin. But this prosperity was soon inter 
rupted by the English presenting a petition for the imposition of such heavy duties 
on the exportation of wool, as greatly injured the trade. It never, however, became 
extinct in the liberties, though it now extends only to the manufacture of coarse fab- 
rics. In 1773, the Dublin society, anxious for its revival, procured an order that the 
army should be clothed with Irish cloth. This employment, however, became soon 
monopolized by one or two great houses, which had parliamentary interest : one of 
these failed in 1810, and the failure was followed by the bankruptcy of almost the 
entire woollen trade of Dublin ; for the general credit was so much affected, that the 
banks refused to discount the bills of the manufacturers, and consequently the crash 
became general. The trade is now almost confined to the city of Dublin, where 
good hearth-rugs and carpeting are made ; and favorable auguries are held forth of 
the factory of Mr. Willans, in particular, from the competition which he is able to 
stand against the cloth markets of the United Kingdom. 

The silk trade was introduced by the French refugees, and about 1693, fully estab- 
lished by them in the liberties of Dublin. In 1774 an act was passed placing it under 
the direction of the Dublin society, for the extent of two miles and a half round the 
castle ; and that society was empowered to make regulations for its management, 
which it accordingly did, and also opened a silk warehouse, and paid a premium of 
five per cent, on all sales made therein. But this warehouse was ruined by an act 
passed about the year 17S6, prohibiting any of the funds of the Dublin society from 
being applied to support any house selling Irish goods either wholesale or retail. 
This act gave to the manufacture a check by which hundreds of people were thrown 
out of employment. According to a return made in 1809, there were still 3,760 
hands engaged in it, who, after the passing of this cruel act, struggled to support the 
trade ; but when the protecting duties were taken off in 1821, and steam communi- 
cation opened with England, the Irish market was inundated with goods at a smaller 
price than that at which her native fabric could be produced, and thus the ruin of 
the trade was completed. The tabinet fabric of silk and worsted, for which Dublin 
has long been famous, is the only branch of the silk business which has not materi- 
ally suffered from these discouragements. At present, silk tabareas of great beauty, 
and rich silk velvets, equal to those of France, are manufactured in Dublin. 

The chief towns in Leinster are Dublin, Kilkenny, Drogheda, Wexford, Maryboro, 
Mullingar, and Trim. 

Dublin, the principal town in Leinster, and the capital of Ireland, is situated at 
the margin of a beautiful bay, on a generally flat piece of country, through which 
flows the river Liffey, and is, therefore, agreeably placed both for commerce and the 
accommodation of a large population. In point of size, Dublin occupies a place 
between Edinburgh and London, and its appearance never fails to surprise and de- 
light the stranger. In external aspect, it is essentially an English town, being built 
of brick in a neat and regular manner, but abounding in a class of elegant public 
structures of stone, which resemble the more substantial embellishments of Paris and 
other continental cities. The river, flowing from east to west, divides the city into 
two nearly equal portions, and is a striking feature in the general plan. The leading 
thoroughfares of the city are easily comprehended. First, from east to west, there 
is the double line of houses and quays bordering upon the river, the lower part of 
which forms a harbor, and is crowded with vessels. Crossing this line at right angles, 
is the great line formed by Sackville, Westmoreland, and Grafton streets, the first 
and second of which are connected by Carlisle bridge, the lowest in a range of eight 
or nine which span the river at various distances from each other. Parallel to the 
quays on the south side of the river, there is a shorter arterial line of great impor- 
tance, formed by College Green, Dame street, Castle street, and Thomas street, being 
terminated to the east by the buildings of the university. Though the ancient part 
of the city occupies the south bank of the river, there is a portion of the mean and 
elegant on both sides ; the streets and squares of the wealthy being here, contrary to 
the usual rule, in the northeast and southeast districts. All the great lines are formed 
by houses of lofty and elegant proportions, chiefly devoted to commerce; and per- 
haps no city can present a more splendid series of shops and warehouses. Sackville 
street, a hundred perches in length, and six in width, with a noble monumental pil- 
lar in the centre, and some of the finest public buildings in the world lending it their 
effect, must impress every one as something worthy of a great city. The spacious- 
ness of several of the squares in the aristocratic districts, is equa ly impressive. 



LEINSTER. 541 

Merrion square is half, and St. Stephen's Green nearly a whole mile ir. circumference, 
the latter containing seventeen acres of pleasure-ground in the centre. 

On first walking into the streets of Dublin, the stranger is apt to see, in the throng 
of carriages and foot-passengers, nothing more than what he expects to find in all 
large cities. He soon observes, however, that, besides the luxurious class who occupy 
the better kind of vehicles, and the busy well-dressed crowd who move along the 
foot-ways, there is a great multitude of mean and mendicant figures, such as are only 
to be found in a small proportion in other cities. This is the very first peculiar feature 
which the stranger detects in Dublin, and it is an unfortunate one. It is explained 
when we learn, that of the large population of Dublin — supposed to approach three 
hundred thousand — fully three fourths are beneath what is recognised in Britain as 
the middle rank. Thus the most respectable streets in Dublin, and the most elegant 
figures which appear in them, seem isolated in the midst of penury and meanness. 

The public buildings of Dublin boast an elegance much above what might be ex- 
pected from the general character of the city. In sailing up the river, the eye is 
first attracted by the customhouse, a large and splendid edifice in the well-known 
taste of the Adams, surmounted by a dome, and very happily situated upon the north 
quay. The postoffice in Sackville street, is in that graver form of the Grecian style 
which has more recently come into favor, extending above two hundred feet in front, 
with a noble portico surmounted by a pediment. The simultaneous starting of the 
mail-coaches at a certain hour every evening from the court of this building, is one 
of the sights of Dublin. Opposite to it is a pillar in honor of Nelson, surmounted 
by a figure of that hero. At the upper extremity of Sackville street is the lying-in 
hospital, a beautiful building, with which is closely connected the more celebrated 
Rotunda, together with an extensive plot of ornamental ground. The Four Courts, 
also a most superb structure, overlooks the river at a point considerably removed to 
the west, and completes the list of remarkable buildings in the northern division of 
the city. To the south of the river, the objects worthy of especial notice are more 
numerous. The buildings of the university (founded by Queen Elizabeth in 1592) 
occupy a conspicuous situation on the great transverse line of streets which has 
already been mentioned. Beneath an elegant Grecian front three hundred feet in 
length, an archway gives admission to a succession of spacious squares, chiefly com- 
posed of brick domestic buildings, and containing a theatre for examinations, a mu- 
seum, a chapel, a refectory, a library, and other apartments necessary for the busi 
ness of the institution. In the museum is preserved an ancient harp, generally rep- 
resented as that of Brian Boroimhe, a famous Irish king of the tenth century. There 
are usually about two thousand students in attendance at the university. Divided 
from this building only by the breadth of a street, is the bank of Ireland— formerly 
the place of assembly of the Irish houses of parliament. The deep colonnaded 
front of this building is one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture, not only in 
the British dominions, but in the world : it carries a charm like a fine picture. The 
hall where once the commons of Ireland assembled — where the eloquence of a 
Grattan, a Curran, and a Flood, was once heard — is now altered to suit the purposes 
of a telling-room ; but the house of peers remains exactly as it was left by that 
assembly, being only occasionally used for meetings of the bank directorate. The 
latter is a small but handsome hall, adorned with tapestry representing transactions 
in the subjugation of Ireland by King William— the battle of the Boyne, the break- 
ing of the boom, and so forth, as also a few appropriate inscriptions. 

In Kildare street, at no great distance from the college and bank, the halls of the 
royal society of Dublin, present a powerful claim to the attention of strangers, in the 
great variety of curiosities, pictures, and models, with which they are filled. In a 
perambulation of the city, the castle is the next object worthy of notice. This 
ancient seat of the viceregal government, to which rumors of plots and insurrections 
have been so often brought by terror-struck spies or remorseful participators, is placed 
on slightly elevated ground, in the midst of the old or southern division of the city. 
It consists of two courts, containing certain public offices, and the apartments of state 
used by the lord lieutenant. In the lower court is the castle chapel, a beautifully- 
constructed and beautifully-furnished modern Gothic place of worship, the whole 
materials of which are of Irish production, and which cost above forty thousand 
pounds. The service performed here every Sunday forenoon, graced as it is by the 
finest vocal and instrumental music, while" a rich " religious light" streams through 
stained windows, and is reflected from the gorgeous stalls of civil and ecclesiastical 



542 DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. 

dignitaries, is one of the most attractive tilings in Dublin. The state-apartments ot 
the viceroy are in the taste of the middle of the last century, and are elegant, but 
not remarkable for grandeur. In one [s a bust of Chesterfield, who was lord lieu- 
tenant in 1745. The most remarkable room is the ball-room, denominated St. Pat- 
rick's hall, which is spacious, and among other attractions has a ceiling ornamented 
with pictures, representing transactions in the history of Irelanc. 

In Ireland, old ecclesiastical structures are usually more curious for their antiquity 
than their beauty. Accordingly, the exterior of St. Patrick's and Christ church, the 
two cathedrals of Dublin, is apt to appear ungainly to an eye fresh from Westmin- 
ster or Melrose. In the former building, nevertheless, the interior of the choir, 
in which service is usually performed, will impress every mind by its lofty proportions, 
its pompous monuments, and the dark stalls and niches, surmounted with the helmets 
and banners of the knights of the order of St. Patrick. In visiting this ancient 
church, the predominant thought is — Swift. We look for his dwelling as we ap- 
proach, and for his tomb when we enter — such is the power which genius has of fix- 
ing the feelings of men for all time, upon every external thing connected with it ! 
The deanery still exists in St. Kevin street, containing the portrait of Swift from 
which all the engraved likenesses have been derived. The streets immediately sur- 
rounding St. Patrick's cathedral, are the meanest and vilest in the city. The houses 
have a ruinous and forlorn look, and the pavements are crowded with a population 
of the most wretched order. These streets are filled with shops, but the trades to 
which they are devoted serve rather to betray the misery than to manifest the com- 
fort of the people. Dealers in old clothes, pawnbrokers, spirit-dealers, and persons 
trading in offals, almost the only kinds of animal food indulged in by the lower orders 
of the people, abound. 

At the western extremity of Dublin, on the north side of the river, is the celebrated 
public promenade denominated the Phenix park, said to consist of about a thousand 
acres. Not only does this park greatly exceed those of London in extent, but it is 
questionable if even the Regent's park, after all the expense incurred in ornamenting 
it, will ever match this domain in beauty. The ground is of an undulating charac- 
ter, and is covered with groups of fine old timber and shrubbery, amid which are 
the domestic residences of the lord-lieutenant and his principal officers, besides some 
other public buildings, and a tall obelisk in honor of the duke of Wellington's vic- 
tories. A zoological garden has lately been added to the other attractions of the 
park. 

Dublin was formerly a busy literary mart, in consequence of the state of the copy- 
right law, which allowed of cheap reprints of British books being here issued. Af- 
ter a long interval, the activity of its publishers have lately revived, and there are 
now several houses which afford considerable encouragement' to native talent ; among 
others, those of Mr. Tims and Mr. Milliken in Grafton street, and that of Messrs. 
W. Curry, jr., and Co., in Sackville street. The latter has had the merit of, for 
the first time establishing a respectable periodical work in Ireland, the " Dublin Uni- 
versity Magazine," which has been carried on with increasing success for a number 
of years. 

Dublin possesses a number of beneficiary institutions, conducted on a scale of 
great liberality; also several religious and educational societies, whose operations 
are extended over the whole kingdom. The trade carried on in the town refers 
chiefly to home consumption ; and, excepting tabinets or poplins, it is not dis- 
tinguished as the seat of any kind of manufacture. The foreign export from 
Dublin is extremely small. Its principal imports are — timber, from the Baltic ; 
tallow, hemp, and tar, from Russia ; wine and fruits, from France, Spain, and 
Portugal ; tobacco, bark, and spices, from Holland ; and sugar, from the West India 
islands. 

The most important branch of its commerce is that carried on with England, chiefly 
in connexion with Liverpool, to whose market there are now large exports of native 
produce. Though the Liffey forms the harbor of the port, vessels of large burden, 
and steamboats have an opportunity of preferring the harbor at Kingston (formerly 
called Dunleary), at the mouth of the bay, on its southern side. This harbor, which 
is constructed on a magnificent scale, with the neat town adjacent, may at all times 
be readily reached by a railway from Dublin, which proves a great convenience to 
the inhabitants. At the opposite side of the bay from Kingston is Howth, whose 
celebrated " hill" forms a distinguishing landmark. 



LEINSTER. 543 

The number of light private vehicles in Dublin is one of its most remarkable 
distinctive features. These are generally of the kind called cars, drawn by one 
horse, and having a seat on each side, admitting of two or more persons sitting with 
their faces outward. To keep a car is one of the highest aims of the ambition of a 
Dublin tradesman. "Previous to the Union," says an intelligent writer who has 
been consulted with advantage, " Dublin was the constant residence of two hundred 
and seventy-one temporal and spiritual peers, and three hundred members of the 
house of commons. At present about half a dozen peers, and fifteen or twenty 
members of the house of commons, have a settled dwelling within its precincts. 
Other persons of this exalted class of society, whom business or amusement may 
draw to the capital occasionally, take up their residence at the hotels, which are 
numerous in the city. The resident gentry of Dublin now amount to about two 
thousand families, including clergymen and physicians, besides nearly an equal num- 
ber of lawyers and attorneys, who occasionally reside there. The families engaged 
in trade and commerce are calculated at about five thousand, and the whole may 
yield a population of sixty or seventy thousand in the higher and middle ranks of 
society. The change which has taken place, though injurious to commercial pros- 
perity, has perhaps in an equal proportion proved beneficial to public morals ; the 
general character of the inhabitants, which was once gay and dissipated, has now 
become more serious and religious, and those sums formerly lavished on expensive 
pleasures, are now happily converted to purposes of a more exalted nature. For- 
merly there were seven theatres well supported ; at present the only one which 
remains is frequently thinly attended. Club-houses and gaming-tables are nearly 
deserted ; and even among the lower classes, vice of every kind has visibly dimin- 
ished." In 1831 the population of Dublin was two hundred and four thousand one 
hundred and fifty-five. 

Kilkenny, the capital of the county of the same name, situated on the river Nore, 
was formerly a town of great consequence, as its ancient castle, the ruins of its 
embattled walls, and churches, testify. Till lately it carried on a considerable trade 
in the manufacture of woollen cloths and blankets ; but these branches have in a 
great degree fallen off, aud the business is now confined to the retail of necessaries 
for its inhabitants, and the sale of the agricultural produce of the district. The city 
contains several good streets, which are respectably inhabited, both by private 
families and tradesmen ; but the suburbs are miserable. The most conspicuous 
ornament of the city is the fine baronial castle of the marquis of Ormond, full of 
historical associations, rising boldly over the Nore. The cathedral of St. Canice, 
built in 1202, is not excelled by any of the ancient ecclesiastical buildings in the 
kingdom, except St. Patrick's and Christ Church in Dublin. The town possesses a 
number of respectable schools, and various asylums and other beneficiary institu- 
tions. Near the town there is a marble quarry of considerable local importance. 
Population in 1831, twenty-three thousand seven hundred and forty-one. 

Drogheda, in the county of Louth, and situated on the Boyne, in the line of road 
from Dublin to Belfast, is a town of respectable appearance, and the seat of an in- 
dustrious population. From the time the English settled in Ireland, this town was 
called Tredagh, and considered of such importance, that parliaments were formerly- 
held in it. In 1649, it was stormed by Cromwell, and the inhabitants put to the 
sword, except a few who were transported to America. Five steamers ply regu- 
larly between Drogheda and Liverpool or Glasgow, carrying out corn, cattle, sheep, 
pigs, and fowl, and bringing back cotton cloth, timber, leather, tobacco, salt, and 
iron. Drogheda contains three Episcopal churches — St. Peter's, St. Mary's, and St. 
Mark's, which is a chapel of ease to St. Peter's; four Roman catholic chapels, two 
convents, and a friary. The chief civic buildings are a handsome tholsel, custom- 
house, mayoralty-house, jail, and linen-hall. The town does not bear a literary 
character : it has, however, four tolerably good bookseller's shops and a reading- 
room: there is also a mechanics' society in Drogheda. Its principal manufactories 
are a flax-mill, two foundries, salt works, a distillery, three breweries, one of which, 
belonging to Mr. Cairns, is celebrated for the superior quality of its ale, which is in 
constant demand in the English and foreign markets. There are, besides, several 
large flour-mills, and a soap and candle manufactory. There is a salmon-fishery on 
the Boyne, close to the town ; and cod, haddock, plaice, soles, and gurnet, are abun- 
dantly caught along the coast. The linen trade is still carried on in Drogheda, 
though it is at present in a very depressed condition. The time of its greatest pros- 



544 DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. 

penty was from 1814 to 1820, during which period four thousand pieces of linen 
were averaged to be the weekly product. There was also a temporary revival of the 
cotton trade in this town ; but in the commercial panic of 1825- '6, many of the 
Drogheda weavers passed over to Manchester and Oldham, others went to France, 
and a large body emigrated to America, in consequence of which the cotton business 
ceased. The population in 1831 was seventeen thousand three hundred and sixty-six. 



CHAPTER LI. 

MUNSTER. 

Munster contains six counties, Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, and 
Waterford, and may be considered as that part of Ireland in which the national 
character, and the national habits of all kinds, are maintained in their greatest 
purity. Some of the largest seats of population in the island, as the cities of Cork, 
Waterford, and Limerick, are situated in Munster. The province contains many 
tracts of beautiful scenery, and one in particular, which is allowed to be unequalled 
in the kingdom — the celebrated lake district at Killarney. 

The lakes of Killarney are situated in the bosom of the mountainous county of 
Kerry, and are annually visited by travellers from all parts of the island, as well as 
from neighboring countries. They are three in number, of unequal size, and con- 
siderably varied with respect to surrounding scenery, though that may be described 
as generally of n mountainous character. Lough Lane, or the Lower lake, by far 
the largest of the three, is skirted on one side by the level and well-cultivated coun- 
try surrounding the pleasant village of Killarney ; on the other side rise the Glena 
and Tomies mountains. In this lake there are a number of wooded islands, one of 
which contains the ruins of an abbey, and another the remains of an ancient castle. 
On the shore, toward the east, is the beautiful ruin of Muckross abbey. Divided 
from the Lower lake by the fine wooded promontory of Muckross, but accessible 
by two channels of level water, is the Middle lake, called also Turk lake, from 
the name of the mountain at whose foot it reposes. Over and above the islands 
which stud the surface, the beauty of these two sheets of water may be said to con- 
sist in the irregular promontories and slopes, generally wooded, by which they are 
surrounded, and above which the mountains tower in sterile grandeur. In many 
nooks of the scenery, elegant mansions look out upon the lakes ; in others the moun- 
tain streams are seen descending in glittering cascades. The Upper lake, the third 
of the series, is three miles apart from the middle one, on a higher level, and totally 
embosomed amid the hills. A stream descending from the one to the other can be 
passed in a boat ; and, at a particular place on the passage, it is common for tourists 
to have the bugle played, in order to enjoy the oft-repeating echoes which it awakes 
in the neighboring hills. The Upper lake, having the wooded heights of Deri- 
cunighy on one side, the round-headed Purple Mountains on the other, and, at the 
head, the bare many-colored ridge of Macgillicuddy's Reeks, while the surface is 
broken by a variety of sylvan islets, presents a landscape of enchanting loveliness. 
In connexion with the lakes, there is a narrow rugged vale, named Dunloe, which 
is usually taken in by a tourist in a survey of this fine scenery. 

Among other beautiful places in Munster, we can only particularize Glengarriff, a 
ragged and most picturesque vale near the head of Bantry bay ; the banks of the 
Blackwater, between Lismore and Youghal ; the river Lee, below Cork, and the 
fine natural harbor (the cove of Cork) in which it terminates ; and the lofty iron- 
bound coasts of Clare, amid which are some scenes of uncommon grandeur. 

The soil in the southern parts of Limerick and Tipperary is perhaps not inferior 
in fertility to any portion of Europe. The Corkass lands of the former, and the 
Golden Vale of the latter, are celebrated for their extraordinary richness. These 
districts are chiefly appropriated to the feeding of black cattle. Wheat husbandry 
is cultivated throughout the limestone districts of Tipperary, Clare, and Limerick 



MUNSTER. 515 

while dairy farming is followed in the mountain districts of Kerry and Waterford. 
The potato culture necessary to supply the wants of an over-dense population, is 
eagerly pursued throughout the whole province ; and it is a deplorable fact, that a 
large portion of that population have no other food during the greater part of the 
year. The grass farms let in large divisions of from one hundred and fifty to four 
hundred acres, at from forty shillings to three pounds per acre. In the dairies 
of the county of Cork, the great butter county of Munster, it is no uncommon thing 
to have from one to two hundred cows in profit ; the advantage of which is, that a 
cask is filled at once by butter all of the same churning. The sweet thick cream 
only is churned, and that every morning. The pastures of these dairy-farms are 
highly manured, and are never broken up for tillage, experience having taught the 
dairy farmers that the older the sward the richer is the milk. Some of these grass 
lands have not been ploughed for a hundred and fifty years. 

Daily laborers are generally paid from eightpence to tenpence per day ; or, if en- 
gaged by the year, from sixpence to eightpence. In the latter case it is supposed 
that the laborer has a house, and grass for a cow, at what is called a moderate rent, 
and which, in the estimation of the laborer, is equivalent to additional wages. The 
food of a great part of the Munster peasantry consists of potatoes ; to this is usually 
added milk, and, if they live near the sea, haak or herrings. In Cork, but few of 
the laboring poor have cows, because milk can be had in abundance at a moderate 
price at the dairies. It is, however, very customary to have ewes, which not only 
supply a tolerable quantity of milk, but furnish clothing. The women spin and dye 
the fleeces, and have them woven into thick frieze, and fulled at the village fulling- 
mill : from this practice, the southern Munster men are remarkably well clothed. 
The cottages, or rather cabins, are, generally speaking, wretched ; but it may be 
stated, that in the dwellings and furniture of the people there is a growing improve- 
ment. The character of the Munster peasantry may be considered as of mixed 
good and evil — the evil arising from a total want of restraint in early childhood, bad 
education, or, as frequently happens, none at all. Female education is peculiarly 
neglected ; and it is deplorable to see marriages contracted when the wife has few 
capabilities for managing a family, and rendering her husband comfortable, or his 
house a happy home. 

Generally speaking, the trade of Munster consists in the export of provisions and 
agricultural produce, as wheat, oats, and potatoes, to a large amount. 

There is on the Shannon an active fishery for trout, herrings, &c, and abundance 
of excellent fish are sent into Limerick, Ennis, Kilrush, and to the county of Kerry. 
Along the coast of Cork there is a fishery for pilchards, herrings, and other kinds of 
fish, which are caught in great quantities, so that frequently the farmers manure the 
fields with sprats. 

The leading towns of Munster are Cork, Limerick, and Waterford. The name 
of Cork is derived from the Irish word corcah, which signifies a marsh. This city, 
which ranks as the second in Ireland with respect to population and commercial 
importance, stands on the River Lee, which, through several channels, pours its 
waters into the harbor, whence the tide flows to some distance above the town. The 
streets are built along the river channels, which, being all quayed, give the city 
somewhat of a Venetian character: of late years, however, the narrower have been 
arched over, and only the main streams, in which the merchant vessels lie, left open. 

The episcopal ecclesiastical buildings of Cork consist of seven parish churches, 
the cathedral of St. Fin Barry, St Luke's chapel of Ease and Free church, the chapel 
of the Foundling hospital, and the church of St. Michael's at Blackrock: two other 
churches are in progress. There are four Roman catholic chapels, three new ones 
nearly completed, and four friaries. There are numerous dissenting chapels — two 
meetinghouses for Wesleyan methodists, one for the Primitive Wesleyans, one for 
anabaptists, two for presbyterians, one for the society of Friends, and two for two 
other small bodies of dissenters. A new Scotch church is in progress. The princi- 
pal public buildings are, the bishop's palace, which stands on a height overlooking 
the town ; a new jail, a little to the west of the city ; the customhouse, large and 
handsome barracks, the city library, the reading-rooms, the infirmaries, the chamber 
of commerce, the steam-packet office, and a well-built and spacious courthouse, hav- 
ing in front a pediment supported on six Corinthian columns, and surmounted by an 
emblematic group of colossal figures. There is now in progress a new savings' 
bank, an extensive and ornamental building ; also a new banking house of cut stone 

35 



546 DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. 

for a branch bank of Ireland ; a new and showy corn-market house ; and an exten- 
sive workhouse for the Poor-Law Union, about three quarters of a mile from the city. 

Cork boasts of many schools — the Blue-Coat hospital, for twenty-two sons of re- 
duced protestants ; the Green-Coat hospital, for twenty children of each sex, to be 
brought up protestants; the Cove street infant, Diocesan, Lancastrian, and Female 
Orphan schools ; the diocesan schools for the united diocese of Cork and Ross, and 
a free school founded by Archdeacon Pomeroy. 

Among the charitable institutions in this city are — Birtridge's charity, where are 
maintained seven old protestant soldiers ; Skiddy's almshouse, where twelve aged 
women receive twenty-nine pounds yearly ; Deane's schools, where forty poor chil- 
dren are clothed and taught gratis. There is, besides, a masonic female orphan 
asylum, and several almshouses. Indeed, in proportion to its size and wealth, the 
city of Cork bears a peculiarly high character for benevolence. 

There are five societies here whose objects are almost entirely scientific : the Royal 
Cork institution, the Cuvierian, the Scientific and Literary societies, the Mechanics' 
institute, and the school and library in Cook street ; one public subscription, and 
several circulating libraries ; eighteen protestant societies, devoted to religious pur- 
poses ; four benevolent societies, for the relief of the distressed ; five philanthropic 
societies, two lunatic asylums, and a school for instructing the deaf and dumb poor 
in George's street. 

The chief exports of Cork are grain, butter, cattle, and provision ; its chief im- 
ports, wine, tea, sugar, and coals. From the parliamentary returns, it appears that, 
during the five years ending 1834, the average annual number of vessels entering 
the port of Cork, was, British 135, tonnage 26,438 ; and foreign 29, tonnage 3,384. 
Steam-vessels communicate between Cork and Dublin, Bristol and Liverpool ; and 
steamboats ply daily between Cork and Cove. The population of Cork, according 
to the census of 1831, was one hundred and seven thousand and sixteen. 

Limerick, the chief city of the west of Ireland, is situated on the Shannon, near 
the place where that noble river expands into an estuary. In consists of the Old and 
New Town, respectively situated on the north and south sides of the river, and con- 
nected by an elegant modern bridge. The new city contains many good streets, filled 
with handsome shops ; but the old town is confined, dirty, decayed, and inhabited by 
a very miserable population. Limerick contains a handsome cathedral of some 
antiquity, situated in the old part of the city, six episcopal churches and a chapel of 
ease, meetinghouses belonging to the presbyterians, independents, and the society of 
friends, with five Roman catholic chapels, three friaries, and one nunnery. The 
principal public buildings are the exchange, the city courthouse, the city and county 
jail, the police barrack, the customhouse, the commercial buildings, the linen-hall, 
the market, and two banks. Though Limerick is not a particularly literary city, it 
has an excellent library and some very good booksellers' shops. The principal 
school at Limerick is the diocesan, but there are many private day and boarding 
schools. There are many charitable institutions, as the county hospital ; the house 
of industry for the aged and infirm, widows, orphans, young females, and deserted 
children ; the corporation almshouse ; Dr. Hall's and Mrs. Villiers's almshouses. 

With regard to the trade of Limerick, it has been observed, that though it has in- 
creased with the extension of the city, it has done so by no means in an adequate 
proportion, when its peculiar advantages are considered ; the Shannon, which con- 
nects it with Clare, Kerry, Waterford, and Tipperary, affording it innumerable com- 
mercial facilities. The quays of Limerick are nevertheless a scene of considerable 
bustle, though chiefly frequented by vessels for the export of the native produce. 
Provisions to the amount of seventy-five thousand tons are here shipped annually. 
The population of Limerick in 183i was estimated to be 66,555. 

Waterford, the chief town of the county bearing its name, and a large seaport, is 
situated on the Suir, a few miles from its junction with the sea. Native produce, 
to the value of £2,000,000, is annually exported from Waterford ; but the imports are 
comparatively unimportant. There is here a fine cathedral, founded by theOstmen, 
and endowed with lands by King John, and several churches, meetinghouses for the 
presbyterians and the society of friends, a French church for the Huguenots, and 
several abbeys and friaries. The principal buildings are the bishop's palace, the 
exchange, and the city jail. Among its schools are the Latin free-school, and the 
Blue Boys' free-school, in which seventy-five are instructed and partly clothed gratis 
and the boys apprenticed to different trades. The population in 1831 was 28,820. 



ULSTER. 547 



CHAPTER LII. 

ULSTER. 

The most northerly of the provinces is Ulster, containing the counties of Antrim, 
Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Derry, Monaghan, and Tyrone. The 
province of Ulster is hilly. The scenery is in general picturesque, especially in the 
vicinity of its chief towns, Derry, Belfast, and Armagh. In the county of Antrim, 
the country from Glenarm to Bengore Head presents a succession of striking and 
romantic views. The most remarkable feature of this scenery is the peculiar con- 
formation of the basaltic columns with which it abounds, and of which the arrange- 
ment is strikingly displayed in Fair Head and the Giant's Causeway. Bengore, one 
of the promontories of the causeway, lies about seven miles west of the little town 
of Ballycastle: though generally described as a single headland, it is composed of 
many small capes and bays, each bearing its own proper name, and of these capes 
the most perfect is Pleaskin. The summit of Pleaskin is covered with a thin grassy 
sod, which lies upon the rock, the surface of which is cracked and shivered. About 
ten or twelve feet from the top, the rock begins to assume a columnar character, and 
standing perpendicularly to the horizon, presents the appearance of a magnificent 
colonnade, supported on a foundation of rock nearly sixty feet in height. About eight 
miles from Pleaskin is Fair Head, the easternmost head of the causeway, which 
presents a huge mass of columnar stones, of coarse texture, but many of them more 
than two hundred feet in height. Some of these gigantic stones seem to have fallen 
from the top, and now present to the eye of the spectator the appearance of groups 
of artificial ruins. The part which may more properly be called the Giant's Cause- 
way is a kind of quay, projecting from the base of a steep promontory some hundred 
feet into the sea : it is composed of the heads of pillars of basalt, which are placed 
in close contact with each other, forming a sort of polygonal pavement, somewhat 
like the appearance of a solid honeycomb. The pillars are jointed, and their articu- 
lation curiously exact, the convex termination of one joint always fitting with precision 
into a concave socket in the next. Within about two miles of the Giant's Causeway 
stands Dunluce castle, particularly described on a previous page. 

The soil of Ulster varies much. In the counties of Armagh, Down, Antrim, Derry, 
and Monaghan, it passes from a deep rich fertile clay to a dry sandy or gravelly 
loam ; while in Donegal, Tyrone, Fermanagh, and Cavan, a great proportion of it 
is cold, wet, and spongy. Tillage is, in general, in an improved state throughout 
this province ; and, though the old Irish plough and the slide car are still occasionally 
used in the remoter parts, many of the modern implements of husbandry have been 
introduced, especially in Down and Londonderry. The English spade has nearly 
displaced the long or one-sided spade; the angular harrow and the thrashing-machine 
are much in use, and the Scotch plough has almost superseded the heavy Irish one. 
The corn crops most general are oats, bere, barley, and a small proportion of wheat. 
Barley is in Derry said to pay the summer's rent, and flax the winter's. Potatoes are 
largely planted by rich and poor, and gentlemen-farmers cultivate turnips and mangel- 
wurzel. Lime and peat are the most usual ingredients of the manure employed in 
the inland districts ; while in the maritime countries, sea-sand; sea-weed of different 
sorts, and various kinds of shells pulverised, are used in addition. From the wetness 
of the soil, in some of the northern parts of Monaghan, the manure is usually carried 
to the fields in baskets, called bardocks, which are slung over asses' backs or the 
shoulders of the poor women. A small but hardy race of horses is reared in the 
island of Rathlin, orRaghery; and the old Irish sheep still prevails in and near 
Carey, in the county of Antrim. Pigs, goats, and donkeys, are numerous, the latter 
being much used in the counties of Cavan and Monaghan. A great deal of butter 



548 DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. 

is sent to the markets of Belfast, Antrim, and Derry, from the various dairies scattered 
through Ulster. 

Whatever were the manufactures of Ireland before the time of James L, they were 
swept away in the long series of wars between government and the local chieftains 
in the days of the Tudors ; and the Scottish settlers in the north of Ireland, and those 
English whom Boyle, earl of Cork, brought into Munster, may be considered the 
introducers of nearly all the manufactures that now exist in Ireland. During the 
reigns of Charles I. and II. much attention was paid to them ; and the exertions of 
Lord Strafford, Sir William Temple, and the duke of Ormond, caused the establish- 
ment of the linen trade to be attributed successively to each. The duke of Ormond 
not only procured several acts for its encouragement, but sent Irishmen to Flanders 
to be instructed in the details of the flax manufacture ; and also established a linen 
factory both at Chapelziod, near Dublin, and at Garrick-on-Suir. In the reign of 
William III., the linen business rose to still greater importance, from the compact 
between the English and Irish merchants to discourage the woollen and promote the 
linen trade ; for which purpose they procured a statute to be passed, levying additional 
duty on Irish woollen goods, from a jealous fear that the prosperity of the Irish 
woollen trade was inconsistent with the welfare of that of England. Another impetus 
was given to the linen trade by the emigration of the French manufacturers, after 
the edict of Nantes, of whom a large number took refuge in Ireland ; and Mr. Louis 
Cromelin, a leading manufacturer, obtained a patent for improving and carrying it 
on, and his efforts were crowned with considerable success. In the 9th year of 
Queen Anne, a board of linen and hempen manufactures was established, and linen 
allowed to be exported, duty free. In the 8th of George I., a grant was given to 
build a linen-hall, and another to encourage the growth of flax and hemp. Previous 
to 1778, bleached linen was sold in the fairs, the manufacturer being the bleacher ; 
but when the manufacture extended, bleaching became a separate business. Con- 
siderable sums had been from time to time voted by parliament for its support ; and 
during the eighteenth century the trade continued to advance, until the check it, re- 
ceived during the American war. On the re-establishment of peace it revived, and 
was at its greatest height from 1792 to 1796. Since this period it has considerably 
increased, and, though deprived of all artificial props, in the form of bounties, is now 
a flourishing department of industry. Belfast is the great centre to which the linens, 
not only of Ulster but also of the weaving districts in the west of Ireland, are sent 
for sale ; and hence large quantities are exported to foreign countries. The linen 
trade prospers at Castlewellan, Rathfriland, and Banbridge, in the county of Down, 
and also at Lurgan in the county of Armagh, where the weavers are at once weavers 
and manufacturers. At Dungannon, in the county of Tyrone, it has greatly declined, 
and is in Donegal chiefly confined to those who work for farmers or market sale. 

The province of Ulster was also the seat of the first couon manufactory introduced 
into Ireland. In 1777 the manufactures were in the lowest state of depression. To 
give them some stimulus, Mr. Joy conceived the plan of introducing cotton machinery 
from Scotland ; and a firm for this charitable purpose was formed, of Joy, M'Cabe, 
and M'Craken ; and a mill for spinning twist by water was erected by them at 
Belfast in 1784, at which time the manufacture may be said to have been established ; 
and so rapidly did it spread, that, in 1800, in a circuit of ten miles, comprehending 
Belfast and Lisburn, it gave employment to 27,0.00 individuals. But, from want of 
assistance at home to protect it, and the embargo laid on American goods, which 
inundated Ireland with English manufactures, the trade has declined, and the cotton 
manufacture is now almost altogether confined to the county of Antrim. Through 
the early part of the present century, it was carried on to a considerable extent in 
Drogheda, Collon, Strafford, Mountmellick, Limerick, and Bandon. Belfast was, 
however, the place where most skill and capital were expended ; as the trade in- 
creased there, it declined in other parts of the kingdom ; and, though large manu- 
factories have formerly been established at Clonmel, Portland, and Limerick, it may 
for all practical purposes be considered as extinct in the other parts of Ireland. 

No returns have been given since the year 1825, when the total number of pounds 
of cotton wool imported into Ireland was 4,065,930 ; and of cotton yarn imported 
thither from Great Britain in the same year, 41,953,156. 

Wherever the linen trade is in operation, the people have constant employment, in 
consequence of being able to fall back upon their looms when agricultural work is 



ULSTER. 549 

not in demand. They may be said, in common years, to enjoy a competency ; that 
is, a sufficiency of food, raiment, and fuel. But in the western parts of Ulster, as 
for example, the mountainous districts of Tyrone, Donegal, and Derry, where' the 
linen manufacture does not exist to any extent, the laboring classes are not much 
better off than in the three other provinces. However, speaking of Ulster generally, 
it may be said the lower classes have more self-respect, more industry, more desire 
for advancement in life, than in other parts of Ireland. In fact, they are a better 
educated, and therefore a more improving people. As may be expected, their taste 
for comfort operates in the economy of their houses and farms ; and, except in the 
mountainous districts above alluded to, where old habits still maintain their ground, 
the Ulster peasantry may be considered as a respectable class in society. The average' 
rent of arable land is from £2 to £3 per acre, usually rising in the immediate neigh- 
borhood of towns to £5 or £6. The wages in Ulster vary from 6d. to 9 d. a-day'in 
winter, and in summer from \0d. to Is. a-day without diet. The food of the peasantry 
is chiefly potatoes, oatmeal porridge, oaten bread, milk, and fish, which those who 
live near the sea vary with that species of sea-weed called the edible alga. 

The salt-water fisheries of Ireland can not be said to have ever thriven. Under 
the former system of the Irish parliament, of given bounties, large sums were at 
different times voted for their encouragement ; but by this there was no real strength 
given, and on the withdrawal of these bounties, things fell below their natural level, 
and the sea-fisheries became altogether inefficient for any purpose but that of supply- 
ing the localities surrounding the fisherman's dwelling. The fishery laws are now 
enforced with regard to both the sea and river fishing, and therefore there is reason 
to believe that this branch of industry is on the increase, and, if properly managed, 
will become one of the chief means of benefiting the island. The river fisheries, 
though less productive than under better management they might have been, yet 
form in several parts of Ulster a lucrative source of property. The lakes and rivers 
abound with trout, pike, perch, eels, and char, and on the Bann, the Foyle, and the 
Ballyshannon in Donegal, are established very successful salmon fisheries. Former- 
ly, whales were not unfrequently, and still are, though but seldom, taken at the 
coast fisheries in this province. The salmon fisheries of the Foyle and the Bann 
were early celebrated. In Phillips's MS., they are stated to have been let from 1609 
to 1612, at £666, 13s. 4d. a-year, for three years at £S60, for eleven years at £1,060, 
and for twelve years, ending at Easter 1639, at £800. The right of fishing th^ river 
Foyle, so far as Lifford, is vested in the Irish society by the charter of Londonderry, 
granted by James I. in 1613. The increase of the quantity of fish taken since the 
introduction of stake-nets is very considerable. The salmon for exportation to London 
and to Liverpool are packed with ice in boxes, fifteen salmon, weighing together 
about ninety pounds, being put into each case. In a report made to Sir William 
Petty about 1682, it is stated that the fishing for salmon in the Bann river, and so in 
all the salmon fisheries, begins with the 1st of May and ends on the last of July. But 
by the present law, the season now begins the 1st of February and ends on the 1st of 
September, seven months being open and five close. The Bann fishery has of late 
years been much neglected ; but, under the spirited and judicious management of 
Charles Atkinson, Esq., it has been much improved during the last year. 

The chief towns in Ulster are Belfast, and Antrim, in the county of Antrim ; 
Londonderry or Derry, and Coleraine, in the county of Londonderry ; Donegal, in 
the county of the same name; Strabane, in Tyrone; Armagh, in Armagh; and 
Newry, Lisburn, and Downpatrick, in the counties of Antrim or Down. Without 
reference to counties, Belfast, Lisburn, Newry, Armagh, and some places of smaller 
note, may be said to form a cluster of towns chiefly devoted to the linen manufacture, 
and all occupied by a population who, for generations, have been noted for their in- 
dustry and peaceful habits. 

Belfast is esteemed the principal town and seaport in this province of Ireland. It 
is advantageously situated on the west side of the Lagan, where that river swells 
into an estuary called the bay of Belfast : distance from Dublin eighty-five miles. 
The ground on which the town stands is flat, while the beautiful and fertile envi- 
rons on the western side of the vale are bounded by a picturesque range of mountains. 
Within the town, the opposite shore of the Lagan is reached by a long stone bridge, 
which also forms the egress from Belfast toward Donaghadee. Although this por- 
tion of Ireland is inhabited chiefly by Scotch, or their descendants, Belfast, like Dub- 
lin, is essentially an English town in external aspect, being built of brick, and hav 



550 DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. 

ing throughout a neat and regular appearance, with many handsome shops. Tne 
prosperity of Belfast is dated from the revolution of 1688, when religious and politi- 
cal tranquillity settled upon that part of Ireland. Belfast is in Ireland what Glas- 
gow is to Scotland and Liverpool to England. In manufactures, it is now the great 
depot of the linen business, and the seat of the cotton trade, having within itself all 
the various branches necessary for producing and finishing these fabrics, from the 
finest cambric to the coarsest canvass. There are in Belfast and its suburbs fifteen 
steam-power mills, for the spinning of linen yarns. Among these, the factory of 
Mulholland and company, employing eight hundred persons, spins seven hundred 
and twenty tons of flax annually, the yarn of which is worth eighty thousand pounds. 
The hand-spun yarn sold on commission in the linen-hall (a cluster of buildings de- 
voted to the use of linen factors), produces about one hundred thousand pounds a 
year. The cotton trade is declining, several of the mills being employed in spin- 
ning flax ; and there are now only six cotton-mills in the town. There are also 
extensive corn-mills, breAveries, distilleries, and tan-yards, with manufactories of 
machinery, cordage, glass, iron, soap, candles, tobacco, &c, for home use and ex- 
portation. In commerce, its exports and imports are extensive ; the amount of 
duties paid at the customhouse of late years averaging nearly four hundred thousand 
pounds. The number of vessels lately belonging to the port was two hundred and 
ninety-three, the aggregate burden of which was thirty-two thousand five hundred 
and sixty-five tons. Latterly, great improvements have been effected for the accom- 
modation of the shipping, by deepening and contracting the harbor, and furnishing 
handsome and substantial quays, wharfs, and docks. The port usually exhibits a 
busy scene of industry, by the daily sailing and arrival of ships and steam-vessels. 
Ten steamers sail regularly — four to Glasgow, three to Liverpool, two to London, 
and one to Dublin. In the retail trade, the numerous branches are carried on in a 
spirited and tradesman-like manner ; and the various markets for the sale of the 
rural produce, which is brought in large quantities to town, are well conducted ; in 
a word, the whole system of trade and industry is on an efficient scale, and equals 
that of any town of similar size in England or Scotland. The prosperity of the town 
is likely to be augmented by a railway lately opened, which is designed to proceed 
to Armagh. 

Belfast abounds in presbyterian and other dissenters. The episcopal places of 
worship are only two (some authorities say three) in number • but there are ten 
presbyterian meetinghouses; there are also two meetinghouses of independents; 
the methodists four ; the society of friends one ; and the Roman catholics two. The 
town possesses some excellent charitable and humane institutions: the principal are 
a poor-house for the aged and infirm, a house of industry, a lunatic asylum, an insti- 
tution for the blind and for deaf mutes. This institution is on the same plan as that 
of Liverpool. The blind are employed in weaving and basket-making, and lately, 
by the introduction of raised letters, they have been instructed in reading. In 1824, 
there were in the town and parish sixty-three schools of all kinds, at which two 
thousand one hundred and fifty-two males and one thousand six hundred and sixty- 
six females were educated, exclusive of the royal academical institution, which in 
1825 contained four hundred and sixty-two boys in its various classes. This institu- 
tion originated in 1807, in a voluntary subscription of the inhabitants, by whom a 
fund was raised of above twenty-five thousand pounds, to which the late marquis of 
Hastings added five thousand pounds for its erection and the endowment of'its teach- 
ers and professors. It consists of two departments, one elementary, the other for 
the higher branches of science and literature. This establishment is directed by a 
president, four vice-presidents, twenty managers, and eight visiters, chosen by the 
proprietory. The chairs in the collegiate department are eight, embracing divin- 
ity, moral and natural philosophy, logic, mathematics, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and a 
lectureship on Irish. The object of this academy was to give cheap home educa- 
tion to those who had heretofore frequented the Scottish colleges. The synod of Ul- 
ster receives the general certificates of this institution as a qualification for ordina- 
tion, and it may be now considered the great seminary for the presbyterian church in 
Ireland. The Belfast academy had been founded some time previously by private 
subscription. 

Of literary societies, Belfast possesses the society for promoting knowledge, 
founded 1788; the literary society for improvement in literature, science, and an- 
tiquities, founded 1821. The town has lately received the valuable addition of a bo- 



ULSTER. 551 

tanic earden, on a h!ge scale, and laid out in an exceedingly tasteful manner It 
was estaM "shed and is wholly supported by the inhabitants of Belfast, and affords 
rjleSSg proof of fe spirit and liberality. The population m 1831 wM" 
^hoiSnd two hundred and eighty-seven, but this number is now considerably in- 

"Londonderry ranks next to Belfast. Besides being a seaport of considerable irn 
nortance it is the seat of a bishop's see. It is situated on the west bank of the 
Fovle a few m les above the point where that river spreads into the harbor of Loch 
Fove'and is distant one hundred and forty-six miles from Dublin The onginal 
town buUt bv Sir Henry Dowera about 1603-'04, was burnt by Sir Cahir O Dogh- 
town, built oy air nei y considered as deriving its origin from the 

than "wo ce mriel these fortifications retain their original form and character. The 

? , ? hp total number of cannon remaining in the city and suburbs is about 
£ tv and^n the courZus^ ^ yard stands Roaring Meg, so called from the loudness of 
titty , ana in ». ie J- J „,,. non j s f our f ee t six inches round at the thick- 

^t^Tlni^te^^J^^^^-" FtsHMONOKKS, London, 1642." 
68 The chief rt™£3e*£&£\ buildings is the cathedral. For nearly twenty years 

& of tL porch of Iheofd cathedral, but is now over that of the belfrey, bearing 
the following couplet :— , 

« If stones could speak, then London's pra.se should ^und >f 

Who built this church and city from the ground.- A. D. 1633. 

The other principa. places of worship are a chapel of ease a *-££-%£& 

1U K na ; iCa t7;reat£hlSefaSaTwo a o, n n.m is, o^VwoShVa s,ea„,en g i„e of 
chief are two Sr eat , dlsll 'f" f e f' *°° horse-power. The public schools in Derry are, 

fftt't I^SSSi^ arrfert'p^htc'^ £ 

society, and one for promoting rell gtona ^^X^^Son. The port 
are alio the Londonderry farmers society .and the mechan c ^ ^.^ 

carries on » «<^ ri ™ b %™^^™i u "K expons of Irish produce is above 
retSion d stXr P er^r m The V populat,ou of Londonderry in 1831, was ten 

thousand one hundred and thirty. countrv is of considerable 

The city of Armagh seated . an inh,nd par of ttaegm^ ^ 

local importance. It is piaceu in trie mm more lhan a 

of which is singula df™^^ from Lou „, N h 

thousand feet in height. I his character 01 cuu , v gout} and jg 

in the north to the northwestern part of the , county ™ ^VJ, furnishe d with 
well watered by lakes and str e*g»Yh^ 

wood. The city stands on a hill, which is "owneu D J several handsome 

which the town has gradually arisen J^*^? ** rii ouse, the jail, the 



552 DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. 

in the pointed Gothic style, for the most part in very good taste ; the organ is a re- 
markably fine one, and the choir excellent. The roads, in all directions, are ad- 
mirable ; and in the laying out of the new ones, they are carried round instead of 
over the hills. There is water-carriage from both Belfast and Newry by lake and 
canal, to within four miles of the city ; the streets have flagged footways, and are 
well lighted with gas. About forty years since, the population was only one thou- 
sand. It now amounts to thirteen thousand. The archbishop of Armagh, primate 
of all Ireland, resides close to the town, as do also a large number of clergymen at- 
tached to the cathedral, as well as many respectable gentry. Near Armagh stands 
the observatory, built and endowed by Primate Robinson, whose munificence greatly 
contributed to the advance of science and improvement of the whole diocese. This 
noble institution is at present conducted by the Rev. Dr. Robinson, professor of 
astronomy. 



CHAPTER LI II. 

CONNAUGHT. 

Connatjght, the smallest of the four provinces, contains but five counties, those 
of Leitrim, Roscommon, Mayo, Sligo, and Gal way. There are in this province large 
tracts of mountainous and sterile land, especially in the western parts of the counties 
of Galway and Mayo. The peninsula formed by the western part of the first of these 
counties is named Connemara, and is famed for its scenery, which somewhat resem- 
bles that of Argyllshire. It may be described as a vast tract of mingled bog, lake, 
rocky moorland, and mountain, bounded and partially penetrated by deep inlets of 
the sea, resembling the fiords of Norway. The principal lake is Lough Corrib, 
which is twenty miles long, full of islands, and surrounded by an extensive rocky 
desert, bearing no small resemblance to those of Arabia. Between this lake and tht 
western extremity of Connemara, there is a range of tall, swelling, green hills, called 
the Twelve Pins of Bunabola, and to the north of these is an estuary famed for its 
wild scenery, named the Killery, many miles in length, and connected with the At- 
lantic by a passage only thirty feet wide. Connemara contains a small, scattered, 
and primitive population, unusually full of superstitious and old feudal feelings. Be- 
sides Ciifden, a modern fishing-village on the west coast, there is scarcely any such 
seat of population in the district. There are, however, a few homely inns for the 
accommodation of the numerous tourists who flock thither in summer. 

From the high grounds near Westport, is obtained a view of Clew bay, a magnifi- 
cent sheet of almost enclosed water, full of islands, and bounded by lofty mountains, 
among which the most conspicuous are Croagh Patrick and Nephin. The islands 
of Clare and Achill bound the scene toward the west. In some states of the weath- 
er, and particularly when a summer sun is calmly descending on Clare, the view of 
Clew bay is one of extraordinary beauty. The islands are said by the common peo- 
ple to be as numerous as the days in a year, but in reality are only about a hundred. 
Croagh Patrick is regarded with superstitious feelings by the peasantry as the spot 
where their tutelary saint was accustomed to preach. 

Amid the great tracts of wild ground in Connaught, there are a few other spots of 
an unusually attractive character. The scenery round Lough Allen, out of which 
the Shannon flows, is extremely pretty, as is also that near Boyle, at the foot of the 
Curlew mountains. At Lough Gill, near Sligo, a lake bearing a strong resemblance 
to the upper lake of Killarney, and the little bay of Ardnaglass, into which falls the 
cataract of Ballysedare, are scenes of peculiar beauty. Much of the surface oi Gal- 
way is flat, showing, for twenty miles together, a succession of narrow limestone 
rocks, like parapet walls of three feet high, placed in parallels to each other, at dis- 
tances of from three to ten feet : the intermediate spaces, though apparently but a 
waste of rock and stone, supply the finest sheep pasture in the kingdom. 

The great central limestone district of Ireland occupies the southern portion of this 
province, which, to the eye, forms an exception to the general character of limestone 



CONNAUGHT. 553 

countries, appearing so exceedingly barren, that, in passing over tracts of Galway 
and Mayo, the traveller almost doubts whether he is not journeying over a great 
cemetery covered with tombstones, rather than over places where the sheep could 
find pasture or the peasant plant potatoes. There are, however, some exceptions 
to this prevailing sterility, for nowhere are finer sheepwalks found than in some parts 
even of the southern counties of Connaught. The tillage of this province is princi- 
pally confined to oats and potatoes, as best suited to the shallow mountain boo-soil, 
which so largely prevails in the western baronies. The extreme moisture of the 
climate is so inimical to the growth of wheat, that, except in a few parts of Galway, 
Connaught can not be said to grow its own bread corn. There is a great export of 
oats and potatoes from the ports of Galway, Westport, and Sligo. With regard to 
husbaudry, though it certainly is improving, it is yet much inferior to that of the 
other provinces. The landholders pride themselves on the breed of long-woolled 
sheep, their great source of wealth; and the celebrated fair of Ballinasloe, where 
from eighty thousand to one hundred thousand are usually sold, year after year ex- 
hibits an improvement in this branch of rural economy. Horned cattle, and horses, 
especially hunters, are also bred extensively in Galway. What has been said of 
Munster applies in a still more aggravated degree to Connaught. The property of 
an absentee landlord is usually divided into portions ruinously small ; and if the pro- 
prietors do not quickly interfere, deplorable consequences must result from the sub- 
division system. The grazing farms are let in large portions, which it is the policy 
of the farmer not to dimmish. Rents vary from one pound to one pound ten shil- 
lings an acre, except in tne vicinity of towns, where they rise to two and three 
pounds ; and wages are from tenpence to one shilling a-day in summer, and from 
eightpence to tenpence in winter. 

There have been many attempts to introduce the linen manufacture into Con- 
naught, and markets for its sale were established in Sligo, Castlebar, Westport, and 
Galway ; but though it thrives to an extent sufficient to supply the rural population, 
there is reason to believe that little if any linen is exported from the province. 
There is, from the ports above-mentioned, a pretty large export of oats, whiskey, 
and potatoes. 

The peasantry in Connaught are as poor as poverty can be without amounting to 
destitution ; and, except in the mountain districts, their situation is daily becoming 
worse — so much so, that poverty, in times of scarcity, which on an average occur 
about once in seven years, increases to destitution, and appeals to the richer mem- 
bers of the empire to save the laboring classes from actual starvation, become un- 
avoidable. The food of those who are the best off is generally dry potatoes, with 
occasionally a herring or an egg. In Connaught, the indigent peasant is reduced to 

state of greater poverty, by grasping at the temporary relief afforded by the sys- 
em called by the Irish name of gambeen (exchange), of which the principle is to 
furnish provisions to the poor, allowing time for payment, but generally charging 
an exorbitant interest. This system has led to the most deplorable results. 

There is a good salmon-fishery near the town of Galway, and one for cod, haak, 
and haddock, which, from the poverty of those engaged in it, which prevents them 
from providing sufficient tackling for their boats, is less productive than it might be. 
In some years the sun-fish, or basking-shark, are abundant off the shores of Galway, 
and much excellent oil is produced ; but this fish is so capricious, that the fishery can 
not be looked to with any certainty. The salmon of Ballinahinch are regularly 
sealed up in tin cases by the gentleman who farms this fishery from Mr. Martin, the 
principal proprietor of the country. There is a very productive salmon-fishery be- 
low the thriving town of Ballina, on the river Moy, from which large quantities of 
salmon are sent to the London market. 

Galway, reckoned the capital of the west, and in point of population the fifth 
town in the kingdom, is situated in a valley lying between the bay which bears its 
name and Lough Corrib. The town is of considerable antiquity, and consists of 
streets and lanes huddled together, without any regard to comfort or convenience. 
The whole partakes of the appearance of a Spanish town, the result probably of its 
early intercourse with Spain ; and a small open space near the quay retains the 
name of Spanish parade. The principal ecclesiastical buildings are the parish 
church of St. Nicholas, founded in 1320, a presbyterian meetinghouse, and the 
Roman catholic chapel. The Franciscans, Augustines, and Dominicans, have 
monasteries here. The chief public buildings are, the county courthouse, a hand- 



554 DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. 

some cut-stone edifice, erected in 1815, with a portico of four Doric columns ; and 
the Tholsel, built during the civil wars of 1641. The schools in Galway are mostly 
under the superintendence of the Roman catholic religious orders. There is also 
one on the foundation of Erasmus Smith, one belonging to the National Board, and 
about sixteen parish schools. Galway possesses a house of industry, an asylum for 
widows and orphans, a protestant poorhouse, and a Magdalen asylum, which is sup- 
ported by two benevolent Roman catholic ladies. 

The chief manufacture of Galway is flour. There are a bleach-mill and green 
on one of the islands, an extensive paper-mill, and several breweries and distilleries 
in the town. The exports consist principally of grain, kelp, marble, wool, and pro- 
visions; the imports of timber, wine, coal, salt, hemp, tallow, and iron. In 1835, 
the vessels entered inward numbered one hundred and thirty-five, of an aggregate 
burden of twelve thousand nine hundred and fifteen tons ; while the vessels cleared 
outward amounted to one hundred and forty-five, with a tonnage of fifteen thousand 
five hundred and thirty-one. In 1840, a splendid dock was opened, from which 
great expectations are formed of the increase of trade. A steamer in this bay is 
highly necessary, for towing out vessels in adverse winds. In 1831, the population 
of Galway was thirty-three thousand one hundred and twenty. 

Across the country in a northern direction, and also situated at the head of a bay 
bearing its name, stands Sligo, a town of a much smaller population than Galway, 
but more important as respects its commerce. It has carried on for several years a 
considerable trade, both export and import, and is still increasing, notwithstanding 
the bad state of its harbor. The exports are wholly limited to agricultural produce. 
The retail trade is extensive, articles of every description in demand being supplied 
to a large and populous district. The streets in the older part of the town are nar- 
row, dirty, and ill-paved, and badly suited to the bustle of an export trade. But 
convenient markets have been erected, and the extension of the town by regularly- 
built wide streets, is expected to remedy the inconvenience and irregularity of the 
older parts. Some good public buildings embellish the prominent points in and 
about the town, and the river Garwogue, which bears the surplus waters of Lough 
Gill to the bay, and turns several large flour-mills in its course, is a fine feature in 
the scene. The suburbs are beautiful and picturesque. In 1831, the population was 
15,152. 



EMBELLISHMENTS. 



PAGE. 

Section of the Stratified and Unstratified 
Rocks, from the Land's End, in Corn- 
wall, to the Coast of Suffolk 14 

Petrified Shells (five illustrations) 16, 17 

Skeleton of the Ichthyosaurus Communis 

restored 18 

Skeleton of the Plesiosaurus Dolichodei- 

rus, restored 18 

Skeleton of the Plesiosaurus Dolichodei- 
rus, in the position in which it was 

found at Lyme Regis 19 

The Cheesewring, as seen from the north- 
west • •• • 21 

Kilmarth Rocks, as seen from the south- 
east 22 

Map showing the Geological Position 
and Commercial Distribution of the 

Coal of England and Wales 23 

Newcastle Coal-Fields 25 

Vertical Sections of Coal Strata 26 

Map of Wales, showing the Coal De- 

posites 28 

Staffordshire Colliers 30 

The High Tor, at Matlock 31 

Shakspere's Cliff 33 

View of Chit Rock, Sidmouth 35 

Petrified Plant of the Fern tribe 36 

Petrified Plant of the Fir tribe 36 

Ancient Britons 39 

A British Warrior on Horseback 40 

Skiddaw, from the southern end of Der- 

wentwater 44 

View of Windermere 46 

View of Leatheswater 47 

View of Derwentwater 48 

Colruth Falls 49 

Entrance to the Peak Cavern 51 

Entrance to Dove-Dale 53 

Scene in Dove-Dale 55 

View of Alum Bay 57 

Map of the Isle of Wight 59 

Scratchell's Bay and the Needles 61 

View of Black-Gang Chine 63 

Ventnor Cove 65 

Shanklin Chine 67 

View of Portland, from Sandsfoot Castle 69 

Chesil Bank, Portland 71 



PAGE 

Western Cliffs, Portland 73 

Elizabeth Castle, Jersey 76 

View of Fort Regent 78 

St. Brelade's Church 79 

Mount Orgueil Castle 81 

Castle Cornet 83 

View of St. Peter's Port 85 

The Coupee Rock, Serk 87 

The Island of Alderney 89 

Goodrich Castle 94 

Coldwell Rocks 96 

Tintern Abbey 98 

Chepstow Castle 100 

Bridge over the Taff 102 

Traeth Mawr 107 

Caernarvon Castle 109 

Bridge across the Menai Ill 

Conway Castle 112 

Pont y Pair 114 

Cromlechs at Plas Newydd 116 

Druidical Circle, Jersey 118 

Druidical Circle at Abury 119 

Stonehenge 122 

Stones of Stanton Drew 124 

Trevethy Stone 125 

Roman Mosaic 126 

Interior of a Roman Barrow 127 

Danish Tombs 128 

St. Mary's Chapel, Hastings, and Ruins 

of Castle on the Cliff 130 

Roman Lighthouse, Church, and Trench- 
es, in Dover Castle — from a Sketch 

taken on the spot 132 

Amphitheatre at Dorchester — from a 

Sketch taken from the southwest 135 

Ruins of Netley Abbey 139 

The Abbey of Rievaulx — from a Draw- 
ing by W. Westall, A.R.A 141 

Byland Abbey, Yorkshire — from a Draw- 
ing by W. Westall, A.R.A 145 

The Abbey of St. Alban's 147 

Monument of Lord Bacon 148 

Battle Abbey, Sussex 149 

The Gateway of Battle Abbey 151 

Howden Church 153 

Tynemouth Cliff, with the Lighthouse, 

Priory, and Barrack ,, . 155 



556 



EMBELLISHMENTS. 



PAGE. 

Church of Tynemouth Priory 157 

Ruins of the Priory of Lindisfarn 161 

Chapel on Wakefield Bridge 163 

Winchester Market-Cross 164 

Chichester Market-Cross 166 

Charing-Cross 167 

The Market-Cross at Malmesbury 168 

Interior of the Remains of the Upper 

Story of Rochester Castle 170 

Gateway of Rochester Castle 171 

Southeast View of Warwick Castle. . . . 175 
Caesar's Tower, and part of Warwick 

Castle— from the Island 176 

Warwick Castle — from the Avon 177 

Guy's Tower, with the Entrance to War- 
wick Castle from the Lower Court.. 178 

Warwick Vase 179 

Clifford's Tower, and Entrance to York 

Castle 181 

Interior of Newark Castle 183 

Ruins of Farnham Castle 185 

Remains of Kenilworth Castle 187 

Great Hall, Kenilworth 189 

The Keep 191 

Carisbrook Castle — showing the Win- 
dow from which Charles I. attempted 

to escape 193 

Beaumaris Castle 195 

Corfe-Castle, Dorsetshire 197 

Interior of Tutbury Castle-Yard 199 

Remains of Upnor Castle 201 

Ruins of Scarborough Castle 203 

Belvoir Castle 205 

Prudhoe Castle, Northumberland 208 

Dover Castle, from the Beach under 

Shakspere's Cliff 211 

Hever Castle 213 

Windsor Castle — 

Round Tower and South Front 215 

Great Quadrangle 217 

North Front and Terrace 219 

St. George's Chapel— South Front... 221 

Alnwick Castle, Northumberland 224 

Gatehouse of Lambeth Palace 227 

Doorway in Lollard's Tower 228 

Blenheim 229 

Chatsworth 232 

Back View of Lady Place, Hurley 235 

Vaults of Lady Place 237 

South Front of Castle Howard 239 

Cobham Hall 241 

Knowle House and Park, Kent 245 

Wilton House 249 

Leeds Castle, Kent 253 

Halifax, Yorkshire 255 

Ancient Birmingham 257 

Town-Hall, Birmingham 259 

New Street, Birmingham 261 

Modern Birmingham 263 

New Buildings, Derby 265 

Sir Thomas Lombe's Silk-Mill, Derbv.. 267 

Carlisle '. . . 269 

Liverpool 27 1 

Medical Institution, Liverpool 272 

Victoria Rooms, Liverpool 273 



PAGE 

Market Place, Hull 276 

Oxford, from the Abingdon Road. 279 

Upper part of High Street, Oxford, with 

a View of Carfax Church 281 

Interior of Christ Church Hall, Oxford. 283 
Magdalen Bridge, and the Tower of 

Magdalen College, Oxford 287 

Radclirl'e's Library, Oxford 289 

New University Printing-Office, Oxford 291 
Carter's Hall Passage, with the Old 

Town-Hall, Oxford 293 

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 296 

Caius Gate of Honor, Cambridge 298 

Interior of King's College Chapel, Cam- 
bridge 300 

The Pepysian Library, Magdalen Col- 
lege, Cambridge 303 

View of Portsmouth and the Harbor. . . 305 

Military College, Woolwich 307 

Royal Horse and Foot Artillery Barracks, 

Woolwich 309 

The " Sovereign of the Seas" 311 

Repository and Rotunda, Woolwich. .. . 313 

Eddystone Lighthouse 315 

Canterbury, from the Railway 317 

Canterbury Cathedral — south side 319 

Nave of Canterbury Cathedral 321 

Capital of a Column in the Crypt 322 

Cathedral Precinct Gateway, Canter- 
bury... 323 

St. Augustine's Gate, Canterbury Cathe- 
dral 325 

City of York 328 

York Minster 329 

Hospital and Chapel of St. Cross: 330 

Petrified Basket of Eggs 331 

London, in the time of Augustus 332 

Vignette of London 333 

The Mansion-House 337 

Bow Street, and the Assembling of the 

Police 339 

The Old Bailey — Sheriffs going to the 

Court ^ 341 

Westminster Hall 345 

Lincoln's Inn Gateway, Chancery Lane 346 
Old Palace Yard, Westminster Hall, and 

the Courts of Law 347 

Parliament Street, Board of Trade, 
Treasury, and Whitehall — The Queen 

going to the House 349 

The House of Lords 351 

Back of the Horse Guards and the Ad- 
miralty 353 

Somerset House 354 

Whitehall 355 

Fish Street Hill Monument, and St. 
Magnus' Church, with Procession of 

Firemen 357 

The Watch, with " Cressets" and " Bea- 
cons" 359 

St. James's Street — Drawing-Room at 

St. James's Palace 361 

The Old Blue Boar, Holborn 363 

Tavern, Corner of Bow Street and Long 
Acre 364 



EMBELLISHMENTS. 



557 



PAGE. 

Club Chambers, Regent Street 365 

Pall-Mall, with the Carlton and other 

Club-Houses 367 

Oxford and Cambridge University Club- 

House 368 

West Front of the London Postoffice. . . 370 

Hall of the New Postoffice 372 

Holborn, from Middle Row, looking east 

— Omnibuses 374 

Bishopsgate Street — Short Stages 376 

Fleet Street — Procession of Mail-Coach- 

es on the Queen's Birthday 378 

Goldsmith's Hall 380 

Bank of England 382 

Principal Front of the Bank of England 384 

Dividend Office, Bank of EnglandT 385 

Front of the Mint, from Tower Hill 387 

The Royal Exchange 389 

The Customhouse.". 392 

The Upper Pool 394 

Map of the River and Port 396 

The London Docks 397 

Paternoster Row 400 

Ludgate Street, from St. Paul's 401 

Regent Street, looking north from the 

Quadrant 403 

River Front of Hungerford Market. . . . 407 

Smithfield Cattle Market 409 

Covent Garden Market 411 

High Street, Borough 413 

London Bridge 414 

Tooley Street, with Drays 416 

London, from the York Column 418 

Westminster Bridge 419 

Covent Garden Theatre 423 

Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park .... 425 

National Gallery 427 

Gateway of the Bloody Tower 429 

Interior of the Horse Armory 431 

Gallery of Athenian Antiquities in the 

British Museum 433 

The Colosseum 435 

Trinity Church, Blackheath Hill 436 

St. Peter's Church, Park Street, South- 

wark 437 

Chelsea Church, from the River 438 

St. Paul's Cathedral— northwest View. . 439 
Westminster Abbey and Hall, before the 

Alterations made by Sir Christopher 

Wren 443 

Front of the Northern Transept, West- 
minster Abbey 444 

Western Entrance of Westminster Abbey 445 



PAGK. 

Tomb of Queen Elizabeth, in the north 
Aisle of Henry the Seventh's Chapel, 

Westminster Abbey 447 

Interior of St. Stephen's, Walbrook 450 

Porch of the Temple Church 450 

Interior of the Temple Church 451 

Monumental Figures in the Temple 

Church 452 

Capitals of Pillars of the Porch of Tem- 
ple Church 453 

Highgate Church 453 

Church of St. Martin's in the Field 454 

St. James's Park 456 

Entrance Arch of the New Falace, St. 

James's Park 457 

The Strand — Churches of Mary-le-Strand 
and St. Clement Danes, with Front of 

Somerset House 459 

Entrance to the Catacombs of the Cem- 
etery at Highgate 461 

Colonnade over the Catacombs at Ken- 
sail Green 462 

British Wild Cattle 466 

Loch Katrine — Pass of the Trosachs. . . 471 

Distant View of Loch Awe .• 473 

Distant View of Dunbarton Castle .... 477 
Gate between the Upper and Lower parts 

of Dunbarton Castle 478 

Loch Leven 480 

Glencoe 485 

Sueno's Pillar at Forres 489 

Southeast View of Melrose Abbey 493 

Dryburgh Abbey 495 

Exterior View of the Cathedral Church 

of St. Mary, at Iona 497 

Interior of the Church at Iona 499 

Roslin Castle 501 

Tantallon Castle 503 

Stirling Castle 505 

Edinburgh Castle 508 

Heriot's Hospital, from the Castle Hill, 

Edinburgh 510 

Glasgow, with Stockwell Bridge, from 

the South Bank 512 

New Broomielaw Bridge, Glasgow.. . . . 513 

Glasgow Cathedral 515 

Monument of John Knox, Glasgow. ... 516 

Hunterian Museum, Glasgow 517 

Glasgow Exchange 519 

Bay of Glengarift 525 

Ruins of the Cathedral of Kildare 533 

Dunluce Castle 536 

Pola-Phuca Waterfall, Wicklow 539 



THE END. 



SEARS' PICTORIAL DESCRIPTION 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 

EMBELLISHED WITH SEVERAL HUNDRED HANDSOME ENGRAVINGS, 

ILLUSTRATING THE NATURAL SCENERY, CURIOSITIES, ANTIQUITIES, DRUIDICAL AND 
ROMAN REMAINS, MANSIONS, CATHEDRALS, ABBEYS, CHURCHES, COLLEGES, CASTLES, 
AND OTHER GREAT WORKS OF ARCHITECTURE, ETC., ETC., WHICH ABOUND IN THOSE 
CELEBRATED COUNTRIES. 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 

We have only room for a few of the numerous friendly notices received from the whole 
American press, and can only select, from the mass which presents itself, the opinions of 
editors whose papers have the largest circulation. Various letters, from many of our most 
eminent men, who have travelled in the countries described, could have been procured, 
going to prove the entire accuracy of the Work, and the correctness of the Engravings. 
The following has been freely furnished to the Editor, for publication ; and the writer is so 
well known, throughout the entire country, as one of the leading and most influential min- 
isters of the gospel, in the city of New York, for the last twenty-five years, that the most 
implicit reliance may be placed upon his judgment, and the estimate formed of the value 
and utility of this volume : — 

From the Rev. Charles G. Sommers, A. M., Pastor of the South Baptist Church, N. Y. 

New York, November 4, 1846. 

Dear Sir : The pen of the historian, and the labors of the biographer, no less than the 
pencil of the artist, are but too often employed in flattering the ambitious sovereigns and 
statesmen of some favorite nation, or in portraying the geographical superiority, the wealth, 
or the martial glories, of one country, to the disparagement of all other lands. Such, I am 
happy to perceive, is neither the object nor the character of your admirable " Pictorial 
Description of Great Britain and Ireland." I have examined the volume before me 
with considerable care, and much pleasure, and have no hesitation in saying, that I think it 
will be hailed as a beautiful and enduring monument of useful and elegant literature, pecu- 
liarly adapted to the wants and spirit of the times. 

Whether, according to the declaration of Torfceus, Ameri" -1 was discovered by the Scan- 
dinavian North-men, or by the adventurous Genoese, is a problem of no great moment ; but, 
that the Anglo-Saxon race, who achieved the independence of the United States, and their 
children, are all descendants of the men whose zeal for civil and religious liberty was kin- 
dled at the altar of British puritans, is an interesting fact, which neither political animosity 
nor commercial rivalry should have power to erase from the memory of either nation. 
Whatever, therefore, is calculated to increase our knowledge of the origin, progress, and 
present condition, of a people with whom we are identified by a common origin, language, 
laws, and religion, can not fail to promote those kindly feelings which it is both the duty 
and interest of Britain and America to cherish. What enlightened man does not contem- 
plate with pleasure the land where a Milton, a Locke, a Newton, a Davy, and others, arose 
to pour floods of light where midnight darkness had brooded for centuries ? What Ameri- 
can does not rejoice to claim the most enlightened and powerful nation in Europe as his 
Fatherland ? Great Britain is emphatically the patron of religious and benevolent enter- 
prise — the land where the memorials of bygone ages may be studied with advantage, and 
where, though we find some things to disapprove, we see much to admire. Containing, as 
your history does, a graphic narrative, and more than two hundred original engravings, 
descriptive of ancient as well as modern curiosities and scenes with which that country 
abounds, the volume must be welcomed as an attractive and acceptable offering to all who 
read the English language, in every quarter of the globe, but especially to the American 
community. 

I deem it but just to add, that the skill with which you have condensed and arranged the 
most valuable materials of several voluminous writers upon this very prolific subject, as 
well as the superior style of presswork and decorative bookbinding in which the work has 
been got up, are equally creditable, and can not fail to secure extensive patronage. 

With my best wishes for your success, I remain, respectfully, yours, &c. 
Mr. Robert Sears. CHARLES G. SOMMERS. 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 

From the New York Saturday Emporium. 

We are glad, among the numerous cheap publications of the day, to meet with one which, 
although cheap, is by no means to be classed with those ephemeral publications with which 
the country is fairly deluged ; and we are glad to see that one man is devoting himself to 
the advancement of morality, by writing books of general utility, and which, while they in- 
terest, do not corrupt. Mr. Sears, in all his books, appeals to the judgment, and not to the 
passions of his readers, and ministers mental food while he at the same time amuses. 

His last book, the " Pictorial Description of Great Britain and Ireland," is des- 
tined, we think, to have an immense run, and to be more popular, even, than his " Picto- 
rial History of the American Revolution," of which no less than nineteen thousand copies 
have been sold, and which is rapidly finding its way into the different School and other 
Libraries throughout the United State*. Here a new class of persons are interested. Ev- 
ery adopted citizen from the kingdom of Great Britain will feel anxious to procure a memo- 
rial of the land of his birth, to which he can fondly point his American offspring — while, at 
the same time, so intimately is the history of America woven with that of Great Britain, that 
no library will be complete without this Pictorial Description of Great Britain. 

And the book is worthy of a place in every library. It is extremely attractive in its en- 
tire " getting-up." The binding, the paper, the embellishments, are all in excellent taste ; 
and, although Mr. Sears simply and modestly styles his book a Pictorial Description, yet 
it is, in fact, a Pictorial History of the countries mentioned. The leading events and 
facts in regard to Great Britain, are depicted with great eloquence and fidelity. 

We assure our readers that they will be highly gratified with the three hundred Engra- 
vings and six hundred pages of letter-press, together with the elegant appearance of this 
superb book, which is an ornament to any centre-table. 

From the New York Sun. 

Mr. Sears has just added a new leaf to his chaplet of fame, and has contributed to the 
cause of sound learning and of judicious moral reading, by publishing the "Pictorial De- 
scription of Great Britain and Ireland." It contains nearly three hundred Engravings of 
the places, buildings, and monuments, most famed in story — places which, by being identi- 
fied into the early history of Great Britain, become part and parcel of American history, and 
which are as familiar as household words on this side of the Atlantic. These, and the 
principal events with which they are connected, are described in a chaste, glowing, and 
elegant style — presented upon superior paper, clear type, and in elegant and appropriate 
binding. The book is published and sold at an uncommonly low price, Mr. Sears aiming 
rather at large sales than at large profits. 

From the True Sun. 

This makes the thirteenth pictorial volume which Mr. Sears has prepared and published 
within the last five or six years. Few publishers have been more successful. Each one 
of his works has had a large circulation in every section of the Union ; and we have no 
hesitation in saying, that the present publication is one of the most interesting volumes 
issued from the American press. It is just in time, too, for the approaching holydays ; and 
we have no doubt many persons will be anxious to secure it as a Gift-Book. The Engra- 
vings alone are worth the price of the work. We believe there are about three hundred in 
the volume, and the most of them are page plates. We ask our readers to call at 128 
Nassau street, and examine it ; and if its perusal do not effectually banish from the mind 
all troublesome thoughts of ledger and per-centage, drive from their presence everything 
like ennui, and fill up every leisure hour with rational and most exquisite entertainment, we 
will lay aside every pretension to critical discernment, and confess to a peculiar and most 
unaccountable taste. We are pleased with the mechanical execution of the work — the 
binding, paper, and type, are excellent ; and, from the hasty perusal we have been enabled 
to give it, we are abundantly assured that none who can possibly do so, will fail to secure 
it, or that, when onee commenced, they will lay it down with regret. 

From the New York Tribune. 
This is a large octavo volume, of about six hundred pages, embellished with about three 
hundred wood Engravings, elegantly bound, and well printed, with paper and type of excel- 
lent quality. It gives a complete but condensed description of the parent-country ; from a 
perusal of which, we should think it well adapted for general circulation. The character 
and design of the work are so well expressed in the title, as to need no further comment. 

From the Nero York Christian Advocate and Journal. 
This is a handsome octavo volume, well printed on good paper, elegantly bound, and 
richly ornamented with several hundred appropriate Engravings. The descriptions are as 
numerous and as full as the limits of the work would admit, and much more accurate than 
many of those which are given by tourists, who, travelling at railway speed, can only take 
a hasty glance at the more prominent objects that strike the view. 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 

From Andrew M'Makin, Esq., Editor and Proprietor of the Philadelphia Saturday Courier, 
with a circulation of nearly 60,000 weekly. 

The very comprehensive title of this work has left us little to do for this valuable com- 
panion and key to English history, save to record our admiration and wonder at the indus- 
try, taste, and enterprise, of the author and compiler — at once the Columbus and Napoleon 
of the pictorial world — who has thus added a thirteenth splendid volume to his remarkable 
series of Pictorial Works. 

From the Philadelphia United States Gazette. 

This is a large octavo volume, beautifully printed, and gorgeously bound, containing a 
description of various parts of Great Britain and Ireland, derived from the very best sources. 
The work describes the natural scenery; curiosities, modern and ancient; Druidical and 
Roman remains ; cathedrals, abbeys, cottages, churches, &c. ; and all these are beautifully, 
and, we believe, truthfully illustrated, by many hundred handsome engravings, from good 
artists. A work of this kind is an admirable addition to the reading materials of young 
persons. They give them proper ideas of places and monuments, continually referred to in 
books and newspapers, but about which very little conception is formed. Many of the cus- 
toms of the country are described and illustrated, and almost everything that can instruct 
and amuse the tarry-at-home traveller, with regard to England, Scotland, Wales, and Ire- 
land, may be found in this interesting and valuable volume. With all its claims to high 
regard, this volume is sold low. 

From the Philadelphia Saturday Post. 

The above is the full but not exaggerated title-page of Mr. Sears' interesting volume. 
It is the completest compend of all that relates to England and her sister isles that we have 
ever seen; and when we remember that Great Britain is the "father-land" of the vast ma- 
jority of the American people, and that we are bound to her by the ties of a common lan- 
guage and a common literature, that, in spite of occasional little jealousies and heart-burn- 
ings, we must ever feel that we are bone of her bone, and flesh of her flesh, such a full 
description of all that is most remarkable and famous in her borders, can not fail to be 
perused by American readers with great interest and delight. 

From the Philadelphia Episcopal Recorder. 
We do not often meet with a book in which the arts of design have been more success- 
fully rendered subservient to the purposes of useful knowledge. It is truly an entertain 
ing work. 

From Alexander's Messenger, Philadelphia. 

We have just received a magnificent work, the title of which is " A New and Popular 
Pictorial Description of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and the British Isl- 
ands," embellished with several hundred handsome engravings — carefully compiled from 
the best and latest sources, by Robert Sears. This book is decidedly one of the best pub- 
lications of the present day, and deserves the patronage of every reader of general literature. 
It gives a capital description of the British isles, their scenery, antiquities, cities, and public 
edifices. The British kingdom is classic ground to an American, and every portion of it 
possesses an interest which can not fail to impart a charm to any descriptive work. We rec- 
ommend it to the perusal of all who love to travel, in imagination, through foreign countries. 

From the Philadelphia Christian Observer. 
This is a beautiful volume, an octavo in size, of about six hundred pages, containing a 
repository of general information, on whatever is most interesting in the history and pres- 
ent condition of Great Britain. We can not, perhaps, convey to the reader in few words a 
more definite view of its contents, than by quoting the title-page entire. It is embellished with 
several hundred handsome engravings, illustrating the natural scenery, curiosities, antiquities, 
Druidical and Roman remains, mansions, cathedrals, abbeys, churches, college's, castles, and 
other great works of architecture, &c, &c, in these celebrated countries. The engravings 
are admirably executed on wood, and are severally accompanied with graphic descriptions 
of the places and scenes which the embellishments portray to the eye. The work is well 
executed, and offers to the general reader a fund of various information that will commend 
it to popular favor. 

From the Cliartcr Oak, Hartford, Ct. 

This is a volume of six hundred pages, got up in a beautiful style — in gilt pictorial mus- 
lin. The geological structure, natural curiosities, Druidical remains, &c, &c, together 
with scenes of picturesque beauty with which these countries abound, are illustrated by 
several hundred splendid engravings, accompanied with explanatory letter-press. The de- 
scription of the city of London occupies a hundred pages, and is made familiar to the stran- 
ger by fifty engravings of its principal streets, parishes) buildinsrs, &c, &c. We have no 
hesitation in saying it is by far the best work of its kind ever issued from the American 
press. It is destined, in our opinion, to have a wonderful sale. 






